Shadows
by lostindreams081981
Summary: (Notice: Abandoned for now, Unsolvable story errors that would require a rewrite that I may or may not get too. If interested in taking a crack at this plot please message me first) Kushina had a secret, she was not the container of the Kyuubi, but something far worse. Now, her secrets may sentence her son to a hell no one could be prepared for. .
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I don't claim to understand what the writer is thinking. This is written for fun, and enjoyment on my part, I make no money off of this in any way, shape, or form. Enjoy the story.

Prologue: The Attack

She felt like crying. It had been a hard couple of months, watching her son in near constant pain from forced growth spurts. Kyuubi had done what he could to lessen the effects, but the near constant growth compounded his pain. Naruto was now nearly a foot taller, and had gained twenty pounds. She didn't understand it at all, none of her family had ever been forced into something like this before.

"He is getting worse, Jiraya," Kushina whispered, looking at the notes Minato had left on the sealing. She knew it was hopeless though, both she and Jiraya had come to understand that trying to remove the Kyuubi seal, while the Beast was present, would kill both her son and the Kyuubi and unleash the Beast. The failsafe that her family had built in did not work anymore, and with each passing day the Beast sent more power into her son, weakening both seals.

"I have a couple ideas that may help," Jiraya sat across from her not liking the scowl on her face. It was not like Kushina to give up. The last few years, and watching her son literally age before her eyes must be hard on her. He was five years old, but looked almost ten.

"You know, it's not good to scowl like that," Jiraya commented as she looked at what he had been able to decipher from Minato's notes. How he had managed to get the seal matrix from the Uzumaki Vault was beyond him, considering the seal array that Kushina's family had designed to protect it.

"Tell me that when my son isn't in danger," she snapped. "Because of my mistake, because of Minato's own selfishness our son is in danger!"

"Kuhsina," Jiraya began. "It wasn't selfishness…"

"He didn't think!" she roared. "You and I both know that we could have fought the beast, I might even have been able to contain him! Instead he took it on himself, to change his son's life and mine."

"Kushina, we thought you dead, and we had no idea about the second seal that you had already placed on him," Jiraya almost yelled back. It was a sensitive subject he had with his considered daughter. She had told him after the sealing everything, and had led to him being banned from the Namikaze lands for several years. "If you had told us before the attack…"

"Jiraya, there is a reason my family kept it a secret," she snapped. "It destroyed an entire civilizations because it was fun in its eyes. It killed member after member of my family that tried to contain it. We didn't seal it away to have its powers harnessed. No one needed to know!"

"I am sorry, Kushina" he said, slumping back. "He wanted to do what was right."

"He should have banished the Kyuubi and waited for me, now we might have to deal with the Beast in ten years," Kushina cried out, tears appearing in her eyes. She was scared; she hadn't been this scared since she left Whirlpool all those years ago. She loved Minato, she loved her son even more, and the darkness that was slowly tainting him.

"Now this is where selfishness came in handy, you almost died giving birth to Naruto," Jiraya reminded her. "If he hadn't fought the beast, if he had waited for you he might have lost you both. What would he have to fight for then?"

Kushina sniffed lightly. When Naruto hurt it reminded her of so much she lost. Her husband was dead, her son injured and aging rapidly because the Beat's presence. "You fight because you must…"

"Madara would use me again," the Kyuubi said from the shadows, "And injured, for all the strength of you Uzumaki, one of you can only do so much. Your son might have lived, but I know you probably would not. Would you truly leave him alone?"

Kushina looked at the red gold beast, a strange mix of both horror and amazement blooming in her chest that her son's powers were already so advanced. The Juubi's taint was almost gone, and the Fox Lord, the one that had received the last of the Juubi's powers would soon be whole once again.

"Is he sleeping?" she asked.

"I hope so," the Kyuubi gave what would be the equivalent of a shrug, an odd roll in his powerful shoulders. "The nightmares have been getting worse, and the last time I saw the seal one of the markers had almost faded from view."

The conflict between the seals had not sealed the Kyuubi as Minato had thought it would. It tied the fox to his blood, literally creating a summons. It was the nature of the seal; it was how the first summons had been created if what Kushina told him was true. How she knew so much about sealing, he would never understand.

There was still so much he didn't know about the woman from Whirlpool. Her family had essentially closed off the borders for years, and then in a last ditch effort contacted him to smuggle out one little girl with red hair and violet eyes. She had been crying the day they were leaving, staring in horror as her father handed her a live blade and a scroll and told her that she would carry the Uzumaki name proudly. He then turned from her and never looked back as his daughter cried. They could hear the sounds of fighting as they were leaving. And in one final blaze of glory, the Uzumaki ignited their chakras and the village of whirlpool disappeared, taking whoever had attacked them with them.

"I will have to check on him later…" she was about to put the notes down when a blast of chilling wind ran through the house. She snapped to attention.

"No." Kushina whispered.

"Hello mother," the gravelly, disembodied voice of her son greeted her, "Aren't you happy to see me?"

* * *

AN: Thanks to my Beta HurricaneAnna for all the work and getting me not to tell everything in the world.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1 – Seal Blossom

...It's been eight years since the Attack...eight years of living in the shadow of a nightmare coming free...

The Uzumaki-Namikaze heir moved through a strange, fluid kata, with a twin katana, that he had never seen before. One of the first things his father warned him of when dealing with the Uzumaki was to be wary of their blades. Nearly everything the Uzumaki taught revolved around blades, even some rather impressive chakra techniques that were impossible to stop.

He remembered the one spar that his brother got against the "Serene Goddess." He knew that nothing about Kushina Uzumaki made any sense, but to see her manhandle his brother so effortlessly was something else altogether. She had not even drawn her sword!

To date, two enemies she had faced in combat, be it with her husband, or on her own, left the field of battle alive, Orochimaru of the Sannin and the progenitor of his clan, Uchiha Madara.

How the bastard was still alive, was beyond even him. His father's look as he died had spoken it all. _Another one stronger than me,_ he thought bitterly, looking back at Naruto.

He gritted his teeth as the boy picked up the pace through the last half of the kata. His arms were a blur, and he could hear the hum of the swords as they cut the air. He stopped suddenly, the blade grips inverted. He then punched a training post. Strange black ink grew over it, taking the shape of a demented dragon. As soon as it was complete, the ink began to move in a circular pattern up and down the training post. It fell to wood chips in less than a minute.

He gritted his teeth. He hated it, he hated it, _he hated it! _He hated being left behind. He absolutely loathed it, more than anything. It's what this boy, _he would never call him a man_, had done to him. He had simply taken everything that was taught to him by his mother, and the notes his father had left, and _ran_. Nothing seemed to slow him down, and he was playing catch-up still! He hated it.

He had been left behind by his family, the sole awake survivor of a massacre. His mother had been left comatose during the battle that had slaughtered his family. He had only been able to stare at his brother's back as he took the stab that had been meant for him. He had only been able to stare as his brother's blood poured out, and the man, the one responsible for the horror, laughed. He had laughed and told him that he wasn't even worth killing. And he had walked away, leaving him behind…

Sasuke shook his head, remembering that day was always so hard for him. Seeing his mother barely clinging to the world, remembering his brother's death, it was all just too much. He looked towards Naruto, watching as a seal blossomed in the air around him, wrapping him in the wind.

The "Seal Blossom," as Naruto called it, was new, but he had seen everything else before. The boy took to the combat style he used like a fish to water. Even the instructors were hard pressed to keep from hurting when he was serious.

He growled, slamming his fist into the tree he was leaning against. One step behind! Why the hell was he always one step behind? He poured himself into training, he ignored almost everything else, and he was still a step behind. It wasn't fair…

Naruto was sitting alone in the middle of the garden near the edge of the Namikaze property. His mother had helped him build a Zen garden there. He studied every stone, and the way that they changed the surface of the sand.

He turned and looked at Sasuke as he approached.

"Fight me," he demanded in the cold, detached voice that was so far from the boy he remembered.

"Why?" Naruto asked with a shrug. "Your fight is pointless."

"How dare you?" Sasuke snarled. "How _dare_ you say that this is pointless?"

"It is." Naruto bent down and picked up a rock.

He held it up for him. "This is you." He turned and threw it hard at the boulder, which marked the edge of the property. It glanced off the boulder and veered into the forest.

"That was you going after your demon, as you can see- pointless."

Sasuke growled, and swung hard. Naruto dodged at the last second and then grabbed his wrist. With a twist, he sent the boy to the ground.

"See what I mean? You're clouded, angry, and alone. Why should I fight you like this? There is nothing in it for me. I gain nothing."

Sasuke got up and charged, only to be flipped over Naruto's back and slammed hard onto the ground. His breath left him as Naruto glared down at him.

"Why are you so determined to follow this path? Are you willing to bend to the destiny that others have laid out for you?"

Naruto walked away, ignoring the strings of curses coming from a downed Sasuke…

He never felt that inferior to Itachi. It was galling to think that this _nobody_, even if his father had been a Hokage, would be so far ahead of him. His head hung at that, he hated it.

He hated being left behind…

* * *

The Seal Blossom worked better than he expected, and the stunning part was that it was solely based in chakra. It created a construct that held form and powered itself.

His father was one of the more gifted seal masters to ever grace this world, his notes had led to the creation of the Blossom technique, and between his notes and Kyuubi there seemed to be no limits to what the energy construct was capable of. He smiled, despite himself, feeling the cool of the necklace against his chest. He looked down; it had once been sapphire blue, now all but a small portion was ebony.

_Damn, _he thought, _I will need to replace it soon._

It had been a crazy idea, but you know fortune favoured the bold. So far, he had seven of the crystals kept in a safe box in his room at home. Kyuubi had an idea of what he was doing, but said nothing to anyone, which he was grateful for. He didn't want to get everyone's hopes up just to fail.

He looked at his sword scabbards, sitting near his "rival," Sasuke Uchiha. The boy had a scowl permanently etched into his face. Moments where it seemed to break through were few and far between. It seemed like he was permanently fixated on the idea of dying and joining those who he had lost. How selfish, he snorted in disgust. He stabbed one sword into the ground, knowing if his mother ever saw that she would cringe. He was far less kind to his blades than his mother and other kenjutsu users he knew were. He placed on into a scabbard and then moved back to the other.

He trained far more than anyone in the Gennin Cohort, save Sasuke, so why did he feel like he was making no improvement. It was maddening, his control was still erratic, he was barely used to the increased size the presence of the Beast had brought about, and yet he was expected to fight at his best? It was asking for miracles.

Like his mother, he had the increased stamina and speed that the presence of the Beast had brought each bearer, but his powers had mutated. He had control, for lack of a better word, of the world around him. He still didn't know the full limits of what he was capable of thanks to the changes the presence of the Beast had brought about.

He sheathed his other blade, the ones that his mother had given him after his sixth birthday. She drilled into his head the skills needed to use them, and he knew some of the family's kenjustu but not as much as she would like. His own powers gave him the reach that the sword gave him, and unlike a blade, his powers could not be stopped. But that had to change; he needed to remove the unknowns his own powers represented.

"_Power only is true power, when there is no unknowns, when you can push yourself beyond the limits of what you have endured before and emerge through the other side for it all the continue again," _she had told him on more than one occasion. Unlike the rest of the Hidden Leaf his mother believed strength came from the power of will, that protecting others to find strength was a weakness and that if you were strong enough to stand on your own then those that you cared for would be protected by that strength. It was the reason she had survived the Beast being transfered in the presence of the Kyuubi, it was why she was able to survive the death of her family and her people, and it was why she had trained him so hard. She believed that he could be that strong.

She had said, that if he was to lead both clans he needed to understand the history of both. He also needed to understand money, politics, and the social standings that came attached with holding the names. Even now, he was shocked when he saw what is father had left to him.

His father's wealth, amassed from his missions during the last war, was held in trust as well, and he would only be able to access it after he assumed his father's position on the Council of Elders for the Land of Fire.

What few knew was that the Fire Lord had assembled a council from each aspect of the society. Bankers, merchants, soldiers, diplomats, the best of them at his disposal at all times, and the Namikaze had station for their knowledge of Sealing, which, ironically, was only surpassed by the Uzumaki clan.

From what he had been told, when he finally did assume both roles, he would wield more monetary power than all but the richest of the Fire Lord's court, and more than likely have the lord's favour as his father had. He hated how hyper his mind went at times. He was only thirteen; he shouldn't be worrying about things like political alliances.

He sighed as he felt the energy around him shift, he could feel Kakashi's presence nearby. It had shocked the hell out of him when sensor abilities began to show with his other powers. It had been frightening at first; every time someone with a strong chakra was near, he had felt like he was suffocating. It took nearly half a year to control the abilities and refine them to the point that he could tell who the people were and their chakra did not affect him.

He heard the boy's growl and sighed. He looked up at the Uchiha heir. _Could he really pity the boy? _Not really. Yes, it hurt to lose people, but he was being selfish now. He was obsessed with the attack and it soured everything good he had now. The love of the village, and the possibility that his mother may come back some day. But then, the desire to be a hero was always a selfish thing. He need only look at what he was trying to do for Koyuki to see that.

"Stop scowling," Naruto called out, shifting his weight so that most of it was on the back leg, which was bent slightly. His front leg was straight and his arms straight out grasping the hilt of the blade. Sasuke tossed him the scabbards, which he caught after twisting one blade into the other hand. He sheathed his swords and smiled at the boy.

Sasuke growled, "Insufferable dope."

"Spoiled brat!" Naruto snapped back, before motioning him forward. "Show me this Will you always speak of."

Sasuke didn't wait for an engraved invitation. He leapt from where he was and punched the boy hard.

For all of his sealing prowess, Naruto was slow, at least to him. Physically, he was as fast as any of the Cohort, but against Sasuke, that wasn't enough. Naruto tended to rely on seals, and that had him at a disadvantage in a slugging match. If he kept the boy busy enough there was no way that the fool would be able to use the Seal Blossom on him. He dodged a hook to the head, and delivered an upper cut to his lower ribs. Naruto flipped back and twisted barely dodging a sweep kick that would have connected with his arms. The boy landed on his feet and lunged at Sasuke again, who dodged under the blow. He was bent at an odd shape as Naruto's left fist flew towards his face.

Naruto vanished in a puff of smoke and he ducked barely avoiding a roundhouse kick to the head. Since they had begun fighting Naruto had gotten better. If he didn't use his seal techniques Sasuke still won seven out of ten spars, but the gap was closing, and Sasuke knew he stood no chance against the seal knowledge the boy had.

He had been there when he watched Naruto place the seals on his mother that, with luck, would begin the process of drawing her back from the nightmare that she had been trapped within. Within six months, they would have her back, in form at least to where she had been when she was in service to Kohona. He had never been able to find an appropriate thank-you for that.

"You know your mom wants you to take control of both families," Sasuke said. "You should consider it, it would make her happy."

"I am thinking about it, honestly," Naruto shrugged. "I just don't know, sometimes it seems like too much."

"Weren't _you_ telling _me_ to stop doubting myself," Sasuke said with a smirk. "Besides, you will have all of us there to help you through taking control of everything that your families had built."

Sasuke knew it was a sore spot for Kushina. She wanted her son to be able to wield everything the two clans had to offer, so she could have a chance to really help him, at least that's what he heard in one of her conversations with Jiraiya.

"You ready for our real spar now?" Sasuke asked and pushed off the rock back into a combat stance after a flip to avoid a spinning heel kick. "I've been waiting forever."

"Yeah, yeah, don't let your panties get into a twist," Naruto waved his hand dismissively, "you'll get yours soon enough."

Naruto suddenly disappeared, and the world blossomed into one of fire.

_Shit, _he had forgotten about the other boy's powers. Naruto simply stared as everything blurred. The world around him began to waver, like the air above a fire as it burned brightly. Naruto's eyes became cold and he moved towards Sasuke.

* * *

Kakashi watched silently as the boys spared. Naruto was not in a forgiving mood today, and had already summoned his powers in dealing with Sasuke. For the most part, Naruto tended to avoid using them, since a.) he wanted his body to be as strong as his powers and b.) they freaked the hell out of people.

It was frightening to think a child had access to such power. He had seen the boy literally rip apart the landscape without so much as a gesture. He refused all testing of his abilities and genetic make-up to see if the abilities would qualify the Namikaze line for Bloodline status. He doubted Koyuki would be too forgiving if he did.

"He's in a sour mood today," Kakashi said, not even bothering to look at the man who appeared next to him.

"He and Kushina fought this morning," the elder shrugged. He had been there to witness part of it. "I don't know what started it, but Naruto almost ended it."

"How?" Kakashi asked in shock. He knew the boy was good, but Kushina was a monster when she wanted to be.

"That Seal Blossom technique." Jiraiya watched as Naruto made a gesture with his hand and a tree ripped itself from the ground. "He created a restrict seal on the ground after they really started going. At that point he decided that his mother's sword looked very useful, since using his powers on her was too good for her."

_Disturbing._ Naruto had been growing more violent as of late, especially towards his mother. Kushina was a loving woman, but hard on Naruto in ways he didn't think a parent should be. But then, most kids didn't have to uphold the history of the most powerful clan in the Elemental Nations or one of the most powerful in Fire Country, let alone both. It was like she was expecting him to be something that he wasn't.

"You know that's not normal for them, right?" Kakashi watched as the tree turned to embers. Sasuke had started pulling out Fire techniques- that was never a good sign.

Jiraiya nodded. "Kushina told me she noticed it too, but she doesn't know what is going on. We've both checked the seals and there is nothing noticeable, and the kid went through puberty five years ago now, so there is no rebellious hormones driving it either."

Kakashi always got a chuckle out of little Naruto's predicament. When most boys should be thinking girls were icky, he had hit a full on growth spurt. The runt looked like he was eighteen by the time he was eight and had a fully developed sex drive if the looks he had given some of the kunoichi were what he thought they were. The fact that he looked like Minato-sensei at that age had meant those looks weren't unreciprocated.

"This bears watching." Kakashi turned back to the fight. Naruto had wrapped the embers of the tree around him in a super-heated cloak of some sort. Pure manipulation without hand seals or visible elemental trails, it was insane. "Do you think he will be able to handle the team we want to put him on?"

"He will deal," Jiraiya shrugged. "It's hard to say with him, he's as tight lipped as Minato was and as pissy as Kushina during that time of the month."

"Crude, Jiraiya," Kakashi deadpanned.

"Truthful." Naruto had dispelled the cloak. Sasuke had a burnt hand now and had been flung back into a tree, hard. "Looks like he is done."

"This isn't going to end well, is it?"

Jiraiya shook his head. "Naruto knows some of what is going on. He knows how he is expected to behave and I think that is the hardest part. He feels alone for some reason, and rarely talks to anyone other than Koyuki."

Kakashi sighed, the Snow Princess. She had come into his life, and somehow got the normally cold boy to open up. He swore she even got a laugh out of him once, but no one who happened to be nearby at the time would confirm it. Some things were better left forgotten.

"You know he won't forgive the Sandaime if this works," Kakashi said. "You know how much he hates using his powers, and with her as a teacher…"

"You don't need to tell this to me, kid! I already understand it, but we all have our orders." Jiraiya disappeared, heading back towards the Namikaze compound to have a chat with Kushina.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2 – The Test

The spar done, they had cleaned up and were now headed to the academy. Well, in reality Naruto had burned his hand so bad he did not think he could continue going on. He reflexively tightened his fist only to grimace. _Damn, that hurt_. Somehow he had gotten a Seal Blossom on his hand and managed to ignite it. The healing seal helped it, but there were still twinges of pain.

"You did not have to go that far," Sasuke growled, knowing that his friend was not normally that vicious. Something was up, he would have to ask him about it later.

Naruto shrugged, he really didn't care. If Sasuke could not handle it, he needed to get stronger so that he could. He smiled as an almost unnoticeable hint of energy began to expand from the Hokage Monument. "Care to see something?"

"What?" Sasuke knew the look in his Naruto's eyes. His own eyes narrowed. "What did you do this time?'

"Look at the monument," Naruto smiled.

He turned and stared at the Hokage Monument, and nearly fell over. Naruto, who had been with him all morning, had somehow managed to get each head covered in paint. Not paint, no, actual make up. Each of them looked like a drag queen, except the fourth. He actually looked oddly attractive as a woman.

For a moment he could only stare at the utter devastation that loomed over them. The he felt it. He felt it rumble in his shoulders, and as much as he tried to fight it, he could not. It just burst out. He laughed, harder than he could remember. He laughed until his eyes started to water as the Sandaime stared down at them from underneath luscious fake eyelashes and pursed his glossy pink lips.

"That's not natural," someone said, sounding grossed out at the flirtatious stare from the Sandaime. The entire crowd gasped as each of the now female Hokage winked.

"Dobe, how did you do that?" Sasuke choked out between peals of laughter. "I can't believe you actually pulled that off!"

"Think they will know it's me?" Naruto asked with a smirk.

"I would not worry about that," a voice said from behind him. He nearly jumped when he heard the voice of Naruto's mom behind him. The woman was creepily good at sneaking up on people. "It's fairly obvious who pulled it off, since your father's monument looked remarkably similar to the photo I showed you of your dad in drag the last time I played a prank on him."

"What do you think, Mom?"

"I think, I want to know how you did it," she said. "I know you two were training most of the morning, before the Academy. When did you find time to do it?"

"Like a true magician, a true prankster never reveals his secrets," Naruto smirked at her before the devilish look melted into something softer. His mom gave him a glare and then locked him in a headlock and gave him a noogie. Damn, she knew how to do those well. "Are we okay, Mom?"

She nodded, knowing he was referring to the out of the blue argument they had had the morning before. It was the first time since the Beast had taken control of him that she had come to blows with her son. "Shouldn't you be getting to class?"

"There are no council meetings today," Sasuke said dryly watching as more people came out of their houses and businesses to see what had happened to the mountain. "Why are you out and about today?"

"There's going to be a meeting tomorrow, today the Jounin get together to watch the Gennin placement," she shrugged, "evidently, it is a tradition, and they asked me to be there for my input, especially since they want to know the skill set that you and Sasuke have."

Naruto nodded. Most of his early training had been with Jiraiya and his mom. So, if they wanted real honest advice about where to place them there were no better people to go to.

"Can we talk more about it tonight, Mom?" He asked looking up at her. "I have something I want to ask you. I promise, it's a good thing."

His mother frowned at him in curiosity. Her son rarely asked to talk with her, it was usually for only something important that he went into formal mode. The sense of dread that usually came when he said that just was not there though. She nodded.

Naruto looked relieved and then looked at her again. "Is he still being grumpy?"

She looked over at Sasuke who nodded. He knew whom he meant, and how it came to pass that he was with the Uzumaki's at all. He, however, was not about to betray the trust that he had been shown by the family. After all if Naruto didn't rip his spine out using his powers, Kushina would parade him around skewered on her blade as an example of what happens to people who cross the Uzumaki clan.

"Yes, as always, keeps complaining there is not enough rabbit in our diets," she shrugged and sighed. "Seriously, living with him makes me want to be a vegetarian, and invest in sound proofing. How you put up with him I will never understand."

"Don't let him here you say that," Naruto smiled. "I will see what I can do after the exams today. I should have time to go and get some stuff from the forests."

"You don't think you're going to have to clean that?" Kushina gestured to the monument.

"Clean what?" Naruto snapped his fingers, and the startled gasps from the onlookers said it all. The horrific image of her husband in drag disappeared and the stone face returned to as it had been before. Kushina shook her head and smiled at the treasured memory she had of doing exactly the same to the Hokage tower as a young girl.

"You know that's not fair," she pouted. "The ANBU are probably freaking out right now."

"So?" Naruto shrugged. "I can't help it if they don't remember what you did when you first got here oh-so long ago."

"It wasn't _that _long ago," Kushina's eyes twitched.

"Mom, I am pretty sure the Six Path Sage was still young when you were my age," Naruto smirked.

Kushina's head snapped up, her violet eyes shimmering in the morning sun. "Did you just call me old?"

Naruto grinned and took off, while Sasuke chuckled. He could hear Kushina screeching in the distance as she gave chase. Sometimes, he wondered why he let himself get dragged into this madness.

* * *

"So how did he do it?" the Hokage asked, gazing out the window at what had mere moments ago been the single most ghastly, not to mention _embarrassing_, sight he had ever seen in his life. He could feel the tips of his ears turn red as he turned to regard his ANBU commander. Despite the fact that the porcelain bear mask concealed the ninja's face, Hiruzen could pick up on the contained amusement he tried to hide.

"I don't know sir," the man bowed low, to make up for his slightly shaking voice, "our patrols have tightened with each exposed weakness his pranks have brought out, but I don't know he was able to cast something so complex."

"Simple, a seal illusion," Jiraiya said, appearing in the room. He tossed a small stone to the Hokage. "He sealed a freaking illusion into the stone, just like Kushina did when she painted the damn tower, and you fools fell for it again."

Hiruzen looked at the stone and then looked back at Jiraiya. "I thought you said his knowledge of seals was theoretical at best. I know Kushina is good, but this should be beyond him right now."

Jiraiya shrugged. "I have no clue how much Kushina has taught him, she doesn't let me in on their training at all."

The rock was about the size of a fist, but its entire surface had been smoothed to the point it looked like it belonged in a koi pond. Almost every millimeter of surface had been etched with seals. Some of them were as simple as a notice-me seal, which basically caught a person and acted as a chain trigger. Every person passed into the field of the person who was caught in the notice-me field would do the same. There were a few others that he did not recognize, and one that even appeared to be demonic.

_How the hell had the kid learned to seal chakra in an inanimate object? _Hiruzen's frown deepened. It was possible of course, but it was difficult for beginners in the art to learn.

"Were there any others?"

"You only need one," Jiraiya said, motioning for the map of Kohona. "He adapted the chain effect of the notice-me seal so that it would continually spread. Each person created a new field that passed on to the next person and so forth. It was a chain reaction that would keep going until he stopped it, and it was subtle enough even the ninja couldn't pick up on it. Nearly half the village saw the light show before it faded." Jiraiya couldn't resist puffing out his chest in pride, the brat certainly was surprising. "From what I heard, Kurenai is furious that she got caught in an illusion so easily."

"People run away from the difficult," Hiruzen shrugged. It was one of the weaknesses in her chosen style of fighting. Genjutsus were amazing, but sealing arts were far more subtle and imaginative. They easily trumped the standard genjutsu taught to his soldiers. "I offered to give her texts on seal genjutsu, but she was perfectly happy with what she had that didn't require learning the art of sealing."

"It's one of the reasons I am glad you got rid of the specialized teams. If Minato had not trained as hard as he did, and driven the others to do the same, we would not have been half as good as we were." Jiraiya looked at the wall. "I think you may want the kid to make the polar opposite of these for you and have them stationed along the wall."

"I wonder how fast he can produce these." Hiruzen nodded as he studied the designs on the stone. "Kushina would never produce anything of this nature for us, but if he can…"

"Don't even think about going in deeper," Jiraiya said darkly. "The time I tried to get him to show me some of the Uzumaki fighting style, Kushina lost it and beat the hell out of me. Naruto has learned from an early age to keep the Uzumaki fighting arts just as secret as the Namikaze ones."

"She won't do anything, until he chooses to take Command of the clan, will she?"

"It's the way of the Uzumaki's. Until a generation is part of a home, they don't really want their arts to become part of that place, even though Whirlpool has been dead for almost twenty years now."

Hiruzen's eyes looked tired. "With her husband's death, she is far more adamant about it, I see."

Jiraiya nodded. "Since it is a Clan technique, we can't really force the issue. The Fire Lord has protected the Uzumaki from being forced to give anything up, and since he knows Naruto is a Namikaze he is even more hesitant to force anything. I don't know how the Namikaze had such favor with the guy."

"It comes from the Council," Hiruzen said, tossing the stone onto the desk. While he had an advisory council, the Fire Lord had the Council. They were the most powerful families in the land of Fire. Even the Senju had not rated a seat on the Council, even with their rise to prominence in the Fire Court. "The Namikaze have sat on the Fire Lord's advisory council since before the formation of the Fire Country."

Jiraiya nodded, back then, almost a thousand years ago, the Fire Lord was simply one of any number of Warlords that roamed the Elemental lands. To be one of the Advisors meant that they were one of the Warlord's trusted elite back then. "I didn't think the brat's family when back that far."

"It's in the Vault." Hiruzen looked at his ANBU commander. "I want a report on your failures on my desk by tomorrow morning. I want to know why the patrols could not sense the latent chakra in the seals, and how they weren't able to prevent the Illusion from spreading. If this had been an actual attack we would be in deep, deep trouble, and that is not something I can afford."

The ANBU commander nodded, though you could see some trembling in his knees, many people thought of the Sandaime as the typical "sweet-old-man," however, when he became serious about something he had even the most hardened ninja's hearts beating faster. "Yes, sir."

"Get out of my sight," Hiruzen ordered. The man disappeared in a swirl of leaves and wind. "Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be better for us to be at war, at least then we wouldn't be this lax."

"Create infiltration missions for the village only, I am sure Naruto and a few of the older Cohorts can handle it," Jiraiya said with a shrug. "Or get Danzo's unit to do it. We don't have time to play around like this, if Naruto can do it, then there sure as hell are others who can."

"You know that means you can't leave for a while yet, right?" Hiruzen asked, a dark look settling on his lined face. He hated thinking about the arrogance that his village now showed.

"Figured as much," Jiraiya said, taking a seat before his old sensei, "I need to look at the Vault again, Kushina and Naruto were pretty pissed off at me last time we chatted."

"So you heard about the latest attempt to get into the Vault?" Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. Uzumaki's didn't chat, they yelled, and loudly, and if they were really pissed they broke things, usually the person pissing them off.

Jiraiya nodded. "Why they want the Namikaze and Uzumaki histories, I will never understand, but the boy is fiercely protective of it, because his mother treasures it."

Hiruzen nodded.

"Do you think the boy will be able to handle what we want to do?"

"You stand a better chance of getting Orochimaru to return to the village in a pink tutu."

"That's what I am afraid of," Hiruzen sighed.

Individually he knew that any of the Jounin could handle training the two, but _together?_ Most of them didn't have the temperament to put up with them. Even Kushina, got a slightly frazzled look about her and that peculiar kink to her hair at the beginning of her hairline from holding her face in her hands after a day of dealing with the pair. _And she does it quite often as well, _Hiruzen frowned to himself.

"I am getting too old for this shit…"

* * *

Iruka looked out over the class, finding the boys at the back of the class, he could see a huge array of fan girls very strategically stationed around them, each took turns to sneak a gaze at the two of them. Though the boys made sure to keep their distance, it didn't stop the girls from trying to come on to them. He swore though he had heard one of the girls, the blonde Ino Yamanaka if he remembered correctly, say once that Naruto was already with someone, an _older_ woman no less.

"Alright class, you know what today is! I expect the best from all of you, as you have demonstrated over the course of the years, now it's time for you to step forward, onto the Path of the Ninja as Gennin. Your missions won't be as hard as you expect at first, but watch each other's backs and everything will be fine. Now, let's begin." With that he proceeded to call out students, one after the other, and ushered them into the examination room.

Sasuke had a tick to his right eyebrow. One girl with eyesore-red hair, who sat a few rows in front of him and Naruto, kept swinging her head back and forth, alternating between listening to Iruka and staring at him. He turned his head to glance at Naruto, his eyebrow still twitching madly. Naruto seemed to be holding up better today, keeping his gaze fixed on Iruka at the front, and pursing his lips in concentration. Sasuke brought a hand up to try and still his wobbly eyebrow. He cast the annoying girl a glare. These days, fan-girls were both annoying as well as deadly. Their original class had been much larger, but with the increase in difficulty of the curriculum, more than half the girls had dropped out. This had only left those with enough skill to become real ninja, and the very idea of fan-girl ninjas was nothing short of terrifying.

"You give anymore thought to my idea?"

Naruto nodded. "We're going to need more seal work, but I think it can be done. The problem is stabilizing the healing rate so it doesn't burn out her chakra network. We can base it off in part on the one we use to heal our injuries after training."

Sasuke took in a small breath, pleased that it was indeed possible. Sealing was one of the few arts where medical knowledge went hand and hand with the art, and Naruto threw himself into it knowing that his own control would never get to the point that he could use medical ninjutsu. He would not let her be alone any longer…

"We'll work on it tonight after the test," Naruto shrugged.

"I will go see her after class and apply that seal you taught me to help," Sasuke said, watching as another student came out with a look of pride on their face.

Naruto nodded.

"Uchiha, Sasuke?" the examiner called out.

Naruto nodded to him, as he got up. "Finish it quick, I would like to get out of here sometime today."

Sasuke rolled his eyes and made his way down the aisle to the examination room. Lazy afternoon sunlight poured in through the large window, a long table had been pulled up near the wall and a man, who had gray hair and a smile that felt a little too wide to Sasuke, sat behind it.

"Test scores and taijutsu are nearly perfect. The only competition you have had this year would be Naruto."

Sasuke nodded, he expected nothing less.

"It must gall you that the brat is considered anywhere in your league," the man, Mizuki, continued, filing through what Sasuke assumed would be all the marks he had picked up since he'd started at the Academy.

Sasuke had to fight to keep his eyes from narrowing. There was something not right with the way the Chuunin was talking to him. As much as he hated being left behind, he hated being manipulated and told how to feel even more.

"Let's just get the exam over with," Sasuke said, unable to keep the shortness from his voice, "I have better things to do than listening to you bitch about, Naruto."

Mizuki looked at the large window in the room and then nodded.

"Please perform the henge, kawarimi, bunshin, nawanuke, and kakuremino."

Evade and hide, Sasuke understood the techniques since his work with Naruto and Kushina. He felt the bunshin form, and then took out some wire and bound his hands. He held them before the proctor, before twisting his wrist lightly and letting it drop to the floor. He took the offered cloth and raised it over his head, letting himself fade from view. The others jaws fell slightly, just how much did the boy practice. He should still need hand seals and to call out for techniques.

Finally is clone burst from view and he suddenly pulled the teacher's desk from underneath them and substituted it with the three logs that had been in the corner of the room. He knew he could have tried other objects, but there was no reason to push himself for the test yet.

Mizuki's eyes were wide as saucers. _Finally, _the Cohorts had a member who got it. Was it so hard to remember what it meant to be a ninja? Even if the boy were going to be a front-line fighter, the ability to move like that would benefit him greatly.

"Oh yeah." This time he brought his hands up into a hand seal. "Kai."

"It's nice to see you too, Iruka-sensei." Sasuke inclined his head in his direction.

With a short smile sent his way, the boy turned and left.

"What just happened?" Mizuki looked at Iruka.

"Naruto's rival," Iruka shrugged. That seemed to be the universal answer these days when dealing with these two.

"Only a few more left, maybe if we hurry we can still hit happy hour?" Mizuki offered.

Iruka nodded and went to call Naruto in.

* * *

Hiruzen observed the actions of the assembled Jounin. Many of them had pleased looks on their faces. They knew the Uchiha would be a front-line fighter, but if this was the best Cohort they had to offer, they would be in a lot better shape than the last three graduating classes.

"How can a Gennin candidate be that proficient?" Kurenai asked, watching the events replay in the orb. "Usually we have to work with them for months to get things straightened out."

"Sasuke has two advantages; natural skill and, to an extent, the need he feels he has to keep up with Naruto," Kushina shrugged.

Kurenai nodded, she herself had been rivals with Anko under the old system. They pushed each other to succeed where most others would not.

"Naruto has advanced knowledge of seals, more so than anyone else his age, so he knows that he can use them, and he is probably cocky enough to do so." Jiraiya shot Kushina a scathing look. The redhead looked unrepentant, it served the pervert right for trying to spy instead of helping them reseal the Vault. "Sasuke feels the need to keep up, so he is proficient in the arts, more so then the rest of the Cohort we have seen to this point."

"Next up, Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze," the Hokage announced.

Kushina looked at the Hokage and shook her head. She knew that the old man wanted Naruto to resume his position as the title head of the Clan Namikaze, because it would get them an ear at the Fire Lord's court, but her son was against it. A lot of it related back to how the Fire Lord had had handled the Snow Revolt. Naruto's closeness with Koyuki clouded his vision of dealing with the Fire Lord and others, but her son was still to hardheaded to realize it right now.

He had that said when he was old enough to assume control of the Uzumaki he would then assume control of the Namikaze as well, and bring both families together, permanently. He had told her more than once that lineage and house loyalties took away from what really mattered, _family. _There would never be heirs to two different clans, only one family that would hopefully stay together for a while. It was a grand dream, but not as practical as he would hope, but she had to indulge him in his dream. It had been her dream after all at his age.

It was a strange argument for a ninja family, but it was effective in finding people who wanted to believe. Yakumo had mentioned wanting to take the Uzumaki name as well, so that she could be there in her brother's family as it grew. She still had no idea how that would work out.

Hiruzen sighed again as he saw Kushina shake her head. He could keep hoping that the boy being able to wield the funds left to him would do just as much good as becoming a ninja would.

* * *

"Uzumaki, Naruto," Iruka called out. Naruto stood and followed him into the room.

The boy wore a serious expression as he stood before the examiners.

"Near perfect on the written exams as well as practical training," Iruka began looking at the dossier that would be sent to the sensei to decide on, "all that's left is for you to please perform these jutsu in any order."

He handed him a sheet of paper with the list of jutsu to perform: henge, kawarimi, bunshin, nawanuke, and kakuremino.

Naruto felt the wind wrap around him, and before their eyes the boy disappeared, leaving nothing in view. Suddenly desks began to rearrange themselves around the room in random order, and the three logs were arranged as eyes and a nose to form a smiley face. Naruto reappeared in view and a clone appeared next to him. There was something _off_ about the clone, but they said nothing. Next it shifted, literally shifted, into a girl both of them had seen in the movies. _Kazahana Koyuki_. She smirked at the instructors before fading from view. Naruto held up bound hands for them to see as Sasuke had done and twisted his wrists. They watched as the rope fell, and Naruto turned to leave.

"Kai," he whispered, not making a hand seal. "Nice to see you, Mizuki-sensei."

Naruto closed the door, leaving them stunned. _Two in a row! What a Cohort!_

* * *

"Not bad." The Hokage looked at Kushina as Naruto finished. Even with seals some of the shift effects on the bunshin should not have been possible.

"Took about three months for him to create…" Kushina said, looking at the Hokage. "Like Jiraiya said, he doesn't have control, his reserves are too large for a normal bunshin, so he needs to think outside the box. That, and he thinks that too many ninja techniques are too loud. Never mind his own powers, which I have seen him use, cause more havoc than a hurricane. He didn't know if he could get his chakra control to the point where he would pass, so he found a way around the problem. He still trains chakra control, but with the powers that he has it is sometimes a moot point."

The Hokage made a note to ask Naruto about it in the near future. His powers were strong enough that he didn't need to worry about basic skills? That didn't make any sense, but a lot of what went on with the Uzumaki's and Namikaze's never made any sense. Everything about sealing should have been left to the demons that created it.

"Deception is key to being a ninja," Kakashi said, "if his powers are too loud, he needs to be better at something else."

"Says the man, with the chirping, glowing hand." Kushina quirked her eyebrow. "When was the last time you tried to fight subtly?"

Kakashi hung his head slightly. "I forget where Naruto gets most of his personality from."

"There, there, Kakashi." Kushina smirked. "I am sure it will get better for you one of these days."

He snorted and buried his nose back in his orange book.

"So do they know these justu?"

Kushina nodded her head. "Not to the same degree in Naruto's case. Their physical stamina is astounding, but control is not something that is coming easy for him. In fact, I think Naruto has a regulator seal on him at all times, which controls the outflow of his chakra. I can't prove it though, because I have never actually seen a tattoo inscribed on his body," she explained.

"What is he playing at?" Sarutobi asked. "I know he has the Seal Blossom, from Minato's notes, down, and now he has regulator seals that can control his chakra? Why?"

"My guess is they're testing things out to do battle with the Chakra Armor that Doto made available to him," Kushina said, shaking her head. Koyuki had been all to happy to give him the designs that her uncle had stolen. He spent hours looking for weaknesses and making notes on how to improve it for Ninja that would help the Grand Army.

"The Princess?" Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. "That's why he forced Seal Blossom technique so quickly?"

"It's the best guess that I have right now," Kushina shrugged. "I, unlike his godfather, don't feel the need to spy on him when he talks with her."

"Hell, the Grand Army of Snow is still together outside of the country right now," he said from the side. " You know how caught up he is in that girl. All it needs is ninja reinforcements and it would be able to move against Doto horde. All she has to do is bat her pretty little lashes and he will come running to help her. Of course, I am going to try and get as much information as I can."

Hiruzen sighed. If that was what Naruto was playing at, it would be a long time before he was ready, and he would need at least three of the Cohorts with him. The Grand Army had been halved fighting a retreating battle out of the country. They had hurt Doto's horde as he seized control from the Daimyo, but, with only minimal ninja support, the Chakra Armor proved to be too much. He growled slightly, a ninja never forgave insults, and he had at least ten years to prepare for it. He would have to talk with Danzo later to see what assets they had in the area. He had some idea, but he had not reviewed the Snow files in a while.

Finally, deciding that he had enough of dark thoughts he decided to move onto other subjects at the Uzumaki-Namikaze household. "How is young Yakumo doing?"

Kurenai perked up at this. This was the first she had heard of the young girl she had tried to teach. Had they found a way to heal her?

"Enjoying herself," Kushina said softly and a smile touched her eyes. "After the boys and Jiraiya got her through that mess, she opened up a lot more than I expected. She spends most of her time exploring the Namikaze grounds and surrounding forests and working on genjutsu with me."

Kurenai was surprised, _she was still practicing? _With her bloodline, her genjutsu would be incredible with just a little more practice.

Hiruzen nodded. "I am glad she is alright, I was worried after what happened with her family."

"If they try and make trouble again the boys have already promised them they would end them. After Naruto's trick today, I wouldn't be surprised if they knew how to find them," said Kushina.

Hiruzen nodded. The trouble between the former Kurama heiress and her clan was well documented, as was the particularly harsh response that Naruto and Sasuke had brought to bear. The clans now stayed a great distance from one another, with the Kurama's going underground. Danzo had a few traces on them, but nothing to overt. They had to toe the line with the Fire Lord, after all.

He had a report somewhere on his desk about the little toy that Naruto had left them. The Research and Development section was having a field day with his little sealing experiment. Hiruzen, despite the fact that he was only beginning to feel the brunt of the village after seeing him- larger than life on the Hokage Monument, and in drag no less, was quite intrigued by what they would come up after further research.

Hiruzen turned to Kakashi.

"Will you be taking a team this year?"

Kakashi shook his head. "I have slipped to far in my training. I will be re-entering under the ANBU Commander-General at the end of this week."

Hiruzen nodded, he had expected as much after talking with the boy. With the mission profile full, it wasn't a time for any of them to slack off.

"Alright, you all have seen the tests and will receive copies of the dossiers from the Academy before the day is out. Please, go over each of them and ready your suggestions for team formation. Remember, there can be no over-specialization on teams anymore. I would rather have a living master of nothing than a dead master of something."

Each of them nodded and dispersed from the room.

"Kushina," Hiruzen called. "Keep an eye on him. I don't want your or Minato's legacy going AWOL in order to perform some half-baked scheme to topple a tyrant. I will shift what resources I can, and when I feel he and the other Cohorts are ready, we will help them."

Kushina nodded, gave him a soft smile and left the room.

Ninja had a long memory. The defeat of his forces in the evacuation of the Daimyo's daughter had left a sting. Screw if it was poor Intel from the retreating Grand Army, screw the armors, his men had been beaten. As Cloud had learned when they tried to kidnap the Hyuuga heiress, ninja never forgave either.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Thanks to Hurricane Anna for being my beta. This is the hardest chapter because most of it is set up for things to come.

Chapter 3 - Mizuki

"Did you notice anything weird during our tests today?" Sasuke asked, as they walked out of the building.

"Besides the two extra supplementary tests and the genjutsu of the instructor hiding?" Naruto asked. He had noticed the unusual air of hostility coming from Mizuki, but thought nothing of it. The asshole hadn't liked him for years, he didn't expect him to start now. "No, not much."

Naruto knew they were in the final phase of the education plans the Hokage had implemented after the Hyuuga incident. He just thought it would be the class after them that the changes took effect. None of the others had mentioned their test being so many supplementary jutsu. Part of him didn't doubt that the Hokage had ordered their tests be different because of the status of their families. Because he was an Uzumaki and a Namikaze he was expected to hold up standards that very few in the ninja forces had to adhere to. Only Sasuke came close and that was only just so.

"Mizuki made a comment about how it must anger me that you're doing as well as I am," Sasuke said looking back at the school. "For some reason I got the impression he wanted to say more to me, but couldn't because the others were watching over him."

"I was going to offer you a chance for extra credit," the man said appearing behind both of them, "but seeing as you're both here I think I can offer it to the both of you."

Naruto motioned with his hands and Sasuke recognized the code language the four of them had developed for their own use. It was based off of Uzumaki battle language, but Kushina would not let them use it. It was a strange tradition that the Uzumaki held too, but until he was married and had a child everything Uzumaki would remain only in the clan.

"_I think he is up to something, hear him out though." Naruto signed._

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. It was no secret that Mizuki didn't like Naruto. No one, not even the other teachers, understood why. Kushina had at one parent-teacher conference left a heel print in his testicles the man had pissed her off. Why was he suddenly being nice now?

"What extra credit?" asked Sasuke. He motioned his acceptance and motioned that they should play along with it.

"There is a scroll, within the Hokage Tower, that has sealing information on a level we can't access in the library system. If you're able to make it there and take the scroll, you've earned the equivalent pay rate for a C-rank mission. If you're able to learn a technique from the scroll, you earn a B-rank."

_Pride_, Naruto's eyes narrowed.

Both families were prideful, and Mizuki was trying to exploit it now. It was no secret that members of their family had impressive mission records. In the Uchiha especially, there was pressure to outdo others for the standing of the family.

Sasuke looked at Naruto before a moment and seeing the shift in his eyes turned to Mizuki.

"How long do we have to complete the objectives?"

"Patrol shifts are at 10:15 and at 12:15 every night. If you're able to make the time at 10:15 you should have upwards of 5 hours to complete your task."

Naruto saw Sasuke's motions and nodded. "Will you be there to see us off at the start?"

Mizuki nodded. "Of course, I couldn't leave my students to attempt such a feat on their own."

"Where would you like to meet?"

"Konoha Central Park, across from the tower. There are a series of bushes near the south end of the park that face the main entrance of the tower. We can meet there."

Naruto and Sasuke nodded. "Thanks for the chance sensei!"

"You know he is lying, right?" Sasuke asked dryly.

"Even I am not that dense, I couldn't see deception," Naruto scoffed. His eyes narrowed and he watched the retreating teacher. "I think we need to kill him."

"They won't like that," Sasuke said, knowing that Naruto had a torture in mind for the teacher. He held a grudge since he had insulted Kushina. Whatever had been said between the two had left Mizuki with a crushed testicale and an unyielding hate of the Uzumaki clan.

"I don't care," Naruto growled, and Sasuke swore that he saw his eyes flash black.

"You should care," Sasuke said, his eyes narrowing. "If you push to hard, they will start asking questions, and probing into what is going on."

"Let's head home, mom is going to get mad if we are late," Naruto said, finally losing the dark look in his eyes. If there was one thing Sasuke had learned over the years, the Uzumaki carried grudges.

They hurried home, after all Kushina was cooking tonight and she made an amazing Teriyaki.

* * *

Yakumo watched her brother and his best friend silently as they praticed all after noon. They had just passed the test, you would think that they would be celebrating that moment. Instead they threw themselves into training, to the point that both of them were bleeding from their mouth. It was suprising that they still had any teeth with the way that they went at each other.

"What's going on?" Jiraya asked darkly as he walked into the field. "Dinner is almost ready, and Kushina isn't going to be happy if they are bleeding to death."

Yakumo only shrugged. Her eyes narrowed as she saw Naruto's aura change. It had been getting darker lately, it was as if the Beast's influence was greater.

"Brats," Jiraya roared. "Stop now and heal."

Naruto barely stopped his strike from connecting with Sasuke's nose. He growled as he looked at his godfather. "Why are you stopping us?"

Jiraya's eyes narrowed slightly. "What's a matter brat? You know how your mother is about dinner."

"Damnit," Naruto roared, slamming his fist into the ground. A spider web of cracks formed around him.

Jiraya watched as he got up and walked away with a dark aura hanging around him. "What is wrong with the brat?"

Sauske could only shrug. He didn't like the looks of this, but there was only so much he could do about it right now. "Jiraya-sama, you need to know something."

He looked at the last Uchiha and listened as he relayed what happened earlier. Damnit he didn't want to miss dinner with Kushina. Her cooking was awesome.

* * *

"So, we have a set up brewing," Hiruzen listened to his spymaster relay details from dinner with the boys. It was surprising that the boys did not blow their chance to hit the traitor then and there, but they had remained remarkably calm and got enough information to hang the bastard from the walls.

Jiraiya nodded. "I don't get it; Mizuki has not had contact with anyone in Orochimaru's command structure since the incident with his team. Why would he choose to make his move now?"

"It's a set up." Sarutobi looked at his last remaining student. "Orochimaru is planning something, and with the recent shift in Sand and Iwa ninja forces it seems highly suspicious, so he is exposing his pawns to draw our attention from their troop movements."

"His own village is troublesome as well," Danzo handed the Hokage a report he had been holding. "Root Agents have infiltrated the Village, but we have not been able to get high enough in the command structure to ascertain the reason that the Village has been growing. He is hiring mercenary forces at an alarming rate. Doesn't matter the skill level, if they can carry a weapon he wants them."

"He's moved his pawns into position, only at the wings so we don't look at his main forces. The mission is now simple, we need to make sure we pay more attention to his queen." Sarutobi pinched the bridge of his nose and looked at Danzo. "Pull out your agents as soon as possible, we will need Root to reinforce Civilian Bunkers, slip them into their public personas, and make sure they know that they are to retreat if the worst case scenario is played out. They will be there in case the Elites get broken."

Danzo nodded. He had two hundred Root agents in total; they were the intelligence and spy operation of the Konoha, as well as their last line of defense. Their mission was always the protection of the village. The thought of being out of the fight did not sit well with him.

Danzo growled slightly. "So you know that this is a set up by Madara, right?"

"Remember Danzo, Orochimaru has spies in our village," Hiruzen said. He really was going to ride his ANBU commander after this. "As does Madara, keep things close to vest for now."

Danzo nodded. It was blatantly obvious that this was a set up to something larger, but there was so little that they could do without tipping their hands and Madara changing his plans before they were completely ready.

"Should we shift patrols?' Jiraya asked looking at the portrait of his son in all but blood. Minato's life had been a tragedy, and Naruto's would have been even more so had he not had his mother. Jiraya had been so caught up in tracking down the traitor that he had ignored everything for several years. It took Kushina and an introduction to her sword to make him see exactly what was going on.

"No, it's too easy," Hiruzen shook his head. "We don't want to tip our hand that we know what is going on too soon."

Both men nodded with their commander. "I am commissioning this as an actual B-class mission for the boys. Their job is to steal the scroll and prepare to take down the traitor."

"Will you let them take the real one?" Jiraiya looked surprised. A B-rank for the boys was essentially an order for the first kill. Traitors to the village were dealt with harshly, be they civilian or ninja.

Hiruzen nodded. "We want to make this as real as possible, so no one thinks that something is up."

"The brats will tear this guy apart, they're good at that," Jiraiya smiled. "Damn brats making me miss dinner and research with this."

Both men groaned as the man disappeared.

"You just _had _to keep the dead last, didn't you?" Danzo snapped.

"Oh, bite me," Hiruzen shot back at his one-time rival. Seriously was all he thought about his books and food?

* * *

He steadied himself as he walked into the main part of the Namikaze home. It had been a long day and he could feel his control slipping, it wasn't something that he liked. He would have to deal with it soon.

His mother had gone to the dojo after dinner, she said she needed to train.

Watching his mother was something akin to a revelation when it came to fighting. She was simply flawless in the way that she moved. Her strikes were perfectly leathal, every movement would have killed an opponet crazy enough to fight her. He knew that his father had a hard time keeping up with her when she was going full out, and only the Sannin and the Third had come out realtively unscathed. She was lethal with and without a blade.

He had been nervous about this all day, because honestly he didn't know if she would be overjoyed or pissed off at him. Naruto knew that she really didn't get along with Koyuki, though his mother tried for him. Naruto was pretty sure that it had something to do with her being seven years older than him. Because of the Beast and what it forced his body through Koyuki never seemed to mind that he was younger than her.

He also knew that his mother wand the rest of the village wanted him to take up the mantel of the Namikaze, the problem was that there was a very strict family code in place. Even in the case there was only one member left, they were not allowed to take complete command of the family resources unless certain conditions were met. The Fire Lord would enforce it, much to the joy of those jockeying for position in his court at the expense of his family. If he followed dictates there was a way and Naruto knew that they would need the resources that his family name brought him.

"Mom?" Naruto stepped into the dojo floor as his mother sheathed her blade. "I want to talk with you."

"What about, sweetie?" she asked, she nodded to his blade at the wall. "I could use a sparing partner."

Naruto groaned slightly. He should have expected this. He picked up his blade and unsheathed it, setting the saya against the wall. He gripped the tsuka in his right hand and moved into a fighting stance.

"Show me your will," his mother said with a slight smile.

He charged forward and was matched with her blade. She threw him off and quickly landed a jab to his stomach. He gasped for breath, his mother wasn't pulling any punches right now.

"What's a matter, honey," she asked, suddenly concerned. Usually he was able to keep up with her from the start.

"I...," he wheezed. "I was wondering if you would be willing to help me."

"With what," Kushina asked, trying to help him up.

"I want to get married," he said bluntly.

She looked back at him now, wide eyed hope plastered on her face. "Are you serious?"

He nodded. "Yes, and for more reasons than just I love her. I want control of the families, and the Namikaze rules will only let me access the funds that they have built up this way, but it requires your approval, and acceptance."

"Marriage…" Kushina breathed. "You're not even out of the Academy yet."

"And because of the presence of the Beast I am actually 18 years old phsyically, have been through puberty and have had to understand things well before my time, this would be nothing new to me," he said with a shrug. Because of the changes his body had undergone he looked eighteen, even though he was only twelve. It was a side effect of the weakened seal of the Beast and the presence of the Kyuubi. Between the two of them his body was forced to mature and age at an incredible rate. "We both know the Village is more than likely going to parade me out there to drum out business. Even if Iwa comes, I am more than ready for their elites."

Kushina looked at him darkly. "You know you are not. You can take me at just over gennin level. If I go full out, you know you wouldn't get ground in."

"Mom, I have powers that put me on par with you, if things get that hairy they are going to realize just what I am really capable of ," Naruto admitted. He, unlike his mother, knew that their powers weren't the result of the Beast.

"NARUTO! You know that our powers are not to be used! You know what might happen? Espeically in your case because of your father's and your sacrafice!" Kushina had thought he got the lesson. The powers of the Uzumaki were not to be used, unless life and death were waiting for you to make the choice. They had no idea if it was a genetic mutation brought about by its presence or if it was the Beast trying to force its way through the seal. Naruto was even more worrisome because of the powers that he also showed.

"Mom, it needs to be done," he said softly. "The Beast isn't where our powers come from, you know that. You lived with its presence for most of your life. Can you honestly tell me that you feel the same when you use your powers?"

She couldn't see clearly. She looked at him codly, her hand tighting around her tsuka. She wanted to do something, she wanted to lash out, she wanted to protect her son, but there was nothing that she could do. She let fly with her blade, only for Naruto to block it.

"I want your approval for this," he said darkly. He knew that this was coming, it had happened before when he mentioned his powers after all. "I want your help, I want to do what is right for myself and for our family, but if you oppose me I will go around you."

Kushina stopped herself. The look in his eyes and he stared at her, she drew a deep shuddering breath and wrapped her arms around her son. She felt him tense and then relax into her. This was his father, she thought. He was always so strong when he felt that he needed to be.

"I already have a boat load of enemies because I hold the Uzumaki name, I might as well add more and take control of the Namikaze side as well," Naruto said with a shrug. He really didn't care about his enemies, they would be dealt with one way or another. He was afraid that he and his mother would have had another fight.

Not all of his enemies in this case were Ninja. Because of the resources he wielded several of the merchant families in the Fire Lord's court were after him as well. There had been at least one assassination attempted brought from the Court because of his connection with Koyuki and his family.

She shook her head. "I don't like it, I was hoping that you would live a little more before you decided to settle down. But, I will support you."

"We're Ninja mom," he said with a sad smile. "We live hard, we die hard, we should enjoy everything in between."

"Spoken like an Uzumaki," she said with a smile.

He smiled and hugged her. "Thank you."

She returned the hug and smiled. "This means I get to beat the crap out of you more."

Naruto paled. He forgot about that, his mom promised to step up his training when he agreed to take control of the families. "You're going to hurt me aren't you?"

She smiled a sadistic smile that reminded him of the Snake Mistress he had met when Kakashi had given him the tour of the ANBU. "Especially after that crack this morning about me being old."

She bopped him upside the head, and hugged him again. "You'll be ready."

"Mom, this is nothing big," he said.

Kushina chuckled and held him close. What Naruto and Sasuke had told her at dinner left her worried. Both boys were determined to go after the traitor. She didn't like it, but if they didn't help there was likely a chance that they would never find who had implemented the plan to begin with.

"Everything is set," Jiraiya said from the living room. "We have Anbu in position if things get out of hand."

"We won't need it," Naruto said, letting go of his mother.

"Don't get cocky brat! I would say you have mid-guard skills right now, but it still only takes one lucky shot for the bastards to win."

Naruto nodded, and looked over at Sasuke. "Ready to play with the traitor?"

Sauske nodded and they got up to leave. Kushina wanted to say something, but she knew that it would do them no good. The boys were dead set on their plans, and it would not change.

"Don't worry Kushina, they will survive."

She nodded, but couldn't escape the feeling of dread in her stomach.

* * *

Mizuki was there just as the expected, holding what looked like a mission scroll. After talking with Jiraiya, they now had a link to explore. Mission scrolls were supposed to be the Hokage's exclusive control in the village.

"I am glad to see the two of you came," Mizuki said with a false smile.

"We don't back down from challenges," Sasuke said darkly. He hated this guy, and to have to put on a nice front went against everything he had learned from Kushina since he started living with them.

"Good to hear," Mizuki chuckled. "Here is your mission objective and location for the drop off."

They both nodded, and then turned away.

"Good luck, gentleman." Mizuki faded from view at that point.

"Does he ever get over himself?" Sasuke asked as they looked over the embankment of bushes to see the Anbu patrol.

"After this, probably not." Naruto shrugged. "He thinks he is going to win."

He shook his head after looking towards the tower entrance. "They still have not changed patrol patterns, even after all these years."

"Who knew pranking could come in handy," Sasuke snorted. The one time Naruto had tried something against the tower he had made it almost to the Inner Sanctum before Anbu patrols finally caught up with him.

"People need laughter, you know that as well as anyone." Naruto looked above them. "On three, cloak and then we move."

He saw the opening too, the patrols were a standard triangle formation that was supposed to cover all vantage points. It didn't work when you all faced the same direction though. He nodded and did the mental countdown in his head before activating the seal on his arm.

The wind bent around the both of them and they faded from view. As they passed the ANBU would more than likely think that it was a gust of wind, rather than two gennin sneaking into the most secure compound in the village.

* * *

"Did they really just do that?" Homura asked, looking up from the globe. "That shouldn't be possible for Academy students. Our ANBU are supposed to be better than that!"

"Not their fault the last Captain-General was an incompetent idiot." Jiraiya explained. "Most of his mistakes were covered by Itachi and Kakashi."

Hiruzen snorted, incompetent was being nice about the situation. It had denigrated so badly that a false peace envoy had managed to break into the Hyuuga compound and kidnap one of the girls, under their noses. It was only now getting back up, but they were still falling for the same tricks. Hell training for the entire lot ran through everyone's mind. He would unleash Naruto on them full bore, no restrictions at all on who he pranked and when.

"This is not good if they are able to get through our defenses so easily," Jiraya looked up darkly as he stared at his sensei. "I want the Cohort reports."

"Why, Jiraiya?" Hiruzen was surprised at this.

"I can either seal it and send it to the Toad Clan, which we can access easily enough since I am here, it's getting out from this tower until security issues are fixed," Jiraya said darkly. He remembered from the Third Secret War when their cohort reports had fallen into the hands of Iwa. It lead to the death of Tsunade's brother because they learned how to exploit the teams.

All three advisors looked at the Hokage and nodded. It would be safer if it was out of the village at this point and time.

He nodded. "I will have them ready by tomorrow morning. Until security leaks are taken care of there will be no updates, commanders will be ordered to keep no records from this point forward."

"Agreed," Jiraiya nodded. "Here comes their first test."

The ANBU patrols in the building were led by one of their best. Yuugao Uzuki was as good a leader as Kakashi was, and did not fall into the bad habit of patterns like the rest of her comrades. "Uzuki's patrol, one of them might get by, but one of them is going to get hurt."

Hiruzen nodded, this should be interesting to watch.

The ANBU patrols in the building were even worse than the ones outside. They didn't stagger their patrol lanes and they would often cover the same area as a group instead of having teams spread throughout the building. Naruto looked over to Sasuke, who he could still see since the seals connected them. He motioned in their battle language and nodded. If he wanted a distraction he would get it.

He dropped the cloak and whistled for the ANBU team. He was the sacrifice so that Sasuke could complete the mission.

"What are you doing here, Uzumaki?" the cat-masked ANBU snapped. She lashed out, catching him by the neck.

"Wanted to see you, sweetheart," he gave her a cheeky grin and kicked her arm. He flipped over and ran towards the other three members of his team. Two hands out; two sleep seals on the still stunned guards.

The third one managed to draw his sword, slashing at the air where Naruto was. He breathed a sigh of relief as the slash only touched the edge of his shirt. His mom was going to be pissed about that later, she bought it for him.

"You're going to jail for this!" the man growled. "Even if you are the Fourth's son, you will face time for doing something this stupid."

"Ya, ya, ya." Naruto dropped then slid into a battle stance. "Come, show me your will."

The man charged, only to be slammed back into a wall hard. Naruto's eyes were glowing white. He turned and stared at the cat-masked ANBU. "And then there was one."

"What are you?"

"You mean you weren't briefed on Uzumaki powers?" Naruto raised an eyebrow. It was kind of freaky with his eyes a blazing white at the moment. "Each of us has our unique power set. Won't tell you how, it's none of your business. But, you're about to see some of it firsthand. I recommend going all out from here on, lady."

"I intend to!" Neko growled. The purple haired ANBU charged at him, and Naruto flipped through the air. Summoning his blade from the seal, he brought it up to match the woman.

"Now, now, it's not nice to swing pointy objects like that," Naruto taunted, leaping back.

"You're going to be in so much trouble when this is over!" she growled, trying to force him down. How did he have the strength to match her? He was just fresh from the Academy. She pushed forward, twisted his blade to the side and punched him hard in the face. He flew into the wall face first, and impacted hard. She grabbed his sword arm, twisted it, forcing him to drop his blade. She shifted her hips, flipping him over, hard onto the ground. His eyes lost their strange colouring as he landed against the ground, stunned.

"You suck," she ground out, bringing her forearm across his throat.

"I know," Naruto grunted, getting his vision back slowly. He rolled his eyes at the thought of the talking too he was going to get from his mother and his godfather for putting some Anbu on the ground, even if it was a mission. "So I cheat!"

His sword leapt into his free hand, she gasped as he brought it towards her head. She leapt back and came into a guard stance. Before Naruto could get up she shot forward, grabbed him by the ankle and twisted hard.

"Give up yet?" she asked. She slammed her elbow into his chest, knocking the air from him. He wheezed and looked up at her.

"Not a chance!" Naruto bit back. He was hurting. Was this really the gap? He snapped his fingers and felt the energy flow towards his hand. He reached up and touched her shoulder. "Restrict."

The seal blossom spread quickly, forced on by the desperation of the moment. He knew the she was holding back, she had seen her spar with his mother once before, and knew the woman was good. He was lucky she was holding back, had he been anyone else the killing blow would have come automatically.

"Damn you!" she snarled.

"I know I'm lucky, kitty-chan," Naruto whispered. "You really think I am that stupid? I am sorry about this."

He touched her again, right on the upper part of her arm. The heat of her skin, as the sleep seal spread over the restrict seal, increased. She fell to the floor, and the restrict seal faded. "Sleep well, kitty-chan."

He twisted again and faded from view. Since he was caught in the wind, no one saw him pass out near the edge of the tower.

* * *

They couldn't help it, they just laughed at the sight before them. It was rather amusing how Naruto dealt with opponents.

"He's going to be sore in the morning," Jiraiya commented. "Her physical attacks were chakra augmented, and even his powers can be overpowered at this point. Though Kushina will be happy to have a gauge of where he is at."

"I have rarely seen Neko lose her cool like that,"Hiruzen admitted.

"It happens," Jiraiya shrugged. "She's been on the receiving end of Naruto's pranks more than once, and the fact she can't learn the fighting style he has pisses her off. She wants the perfect sword style, kind of like Orochimaru wanted all the jutsu in the world. She just hides her disappointment better."

"This doesn't speak well of our Anbu though," Danzo shook his head. "We need more information on Uzumaki powers too."

"This is pathetic," Hiruzen growled. He knew peace had made his forces lax, but he did not believe that it would get this bad. "All of the teams need a shake down, I thought about Hell Training, but I am considering giving them over to Gai."

Jiraiya laughed. "If that doesn't people to shape up, nothing will."

"Agreed," Hiruzen nodded. The Green Beast, while eccentric to a fault, was a monster when it came to training. He made the best drill instructors he had cry trying to keep up with him. "You need to keep watch over him, I know getting information from Kushina won't be easy, and I want to know more about these powers."

"You know after Kushina gets through with him for using that his powers again, she is going to drill Uzumaki Kenjutsu into his head. Your ANBU won't be able to keep up with him after a year or so, and she is going to be upset that Kushina still won't teach her," Jiraya tried to change the subject. Uzumaki powers were on area that he did not want to go into. He wouldn't subject his grandson to such scrutiny.

"Why?" Hiruzen seemed surprised. Kushina demanded her son practice regularly, but from the sound in Jiraiya's voice it was going to be a lot more brutal than before.

"He wants control of the Namikaze as well," Jiraiya said with a smile, "turns out he has a fiancé already and told no one."

"This is the problem with twelve year old aging too fast." Homura laughed. "Who is it?"

"Who else?" Jiraiya smiled. "You think the Princess would let anyone else near him?"

Danzo smiled. "I guess this means we will be stepping up our orders in the snow region?"

Hiruzen shrugged. "We need time to prepare, we can't let it go ahead without being sure we can neutralize the armor. That means find me a copy, or get your agents seal trained."

"The boys aren't ready anyways, I am pretty sure their entire cohort will help them, with how the feel about the two." Danzo nodded.

Hiruzen nodded. It was no secret that this Cohort was the most dedicated of the group. If for no other reason that Sasuke let it be known strength attracted him. He still wanted to know how Naruto got him to admit that one.

"Should we hold off putting them on teams?" Koharu asked.

Jiraiya shook his head. "Remember how Uzumaki are? Kushina learned the same way while still serving in the Ninja forces, she expects Naruto to do the same, even if Whirlpool's forces were not a mission oriented force like Konoha."

Hiruzen nodded and turned back to the globe. Things just got a lot more _interesting._

* * *

It was absolute black. What happened with the mission? Where was Sasuke? What happened with Mizuki? What is going on? There was nothing around him but the black. He opened his eyes, trying to find something, anything, but he couldn't. He could not see his hands, he could only feel. He felt his panic rise, and he began to flail about wildly. He wanted to find something, anything. He turned, and screamed, but nothing could be heard. He felt his throat strain, he felt his vocal chords vibrate but there was nothing around him.

He felt his heartbeat rise. It was thumping all the way to the base of his throat.

He couldn't even hear his breath!

He spun around, and stopped. Staring at him were two fields of red.

He screamed, but nothing came out.

_**Nothing can save you Uzumaki, nothing at all…**_

Naruto awoke with a start s_omeone _tapping him on the shoulder hard.

"Come on dope, let's go," he said holding up the scroll. "Stage one is complete."

Naruto nodded, trying to shake off the feeling of unease.


	5. Chapter 5

AN: I am not really happy with this chapter. It may be rewritten it may not, and I may just decide to let someone else roll with this story. If anyone might be interested in taking it over PM me and we will talk.

Chapter 4 – Storm

"Nice distraction," Sasuke said as they raced through the woods. It had only taken a moment to get him up, but it was odd to see Naruto tired. "Any particular reason you felt the need to piss off Neko to the point she knocked you out? You know she knows where we live, right?"

"'Cause I can?" Naruto mumbled. His body was hurting and he didn't understand why. He didn't remember getting hit that hard by Neko when they fought, but he could have been wrong. The moment that he opened his eyes One moment he was moving to the rendezvous point with Sasuke and the next he was out like a light. The only reason he had been found at all was Sasuke knew how to sense him when he was wrapped in the wind.

"You're lying to me," Sasuke said bluntly.

Naruto knew he couldn't hide it forever. His friend had lived through one of the attacks before, by the skin of his teeth, but he had survived. He needed to know what was coming. "You know this isn't the time."

"You will tell me eventually, right," Sasuke growled. It wasn't a question.

Naruto only nodded. "Not now, but yes. We have a mission to finish and another to prepare for."

Sasuke snorted. Years of planning and scheming, and such a chance drops right into their laps. It was something that was just to good to pass up, they now had the chance to actually reveal the Scroll of Seals. "Are we really going to do this?"

Naruto nodded. "They have been watching us for a while already, should be fun to take the fight back to them. Mom and Yakumo are ready, it's up to us to get everything in place. Your mom will be a great help to us in the long run, as she faced them with my mom when they were younger."

Sauske nodded and then forced chakra into his legs and sped off into the forest with Naruto at his side. The ANBU who silently had been ordered to trail them following in the shadows cast by the giant trees.

* * *

Hiruzen watched as the two boys moved through the canopy of leaves it was a spinal pattern that the ANBU could follow easily. Three teams were already in position along the pre-chosen path ready to move the moment that Mizuki sealed the deal. He was in a bad mood with his own forces right now, as the Anbu Commander-General had discovered earlier. He was going to come down on the entire lot of them. The fact that those not assigned to the mission had not stopped them spoke badly of the security that they had built up over the years.

"This is just worthless, what have you spineless fools been doing since the Cloud incident? Have you been buffing your nails and braiding your hair like women," Danzo roared at the awake members of the team that Naruto had harassed, mirroring Hiruzen's own. Cat was now awake and you could tell from her posture that she wanted to rip something in two. Luckily, she would get her chance. "You are still the front line of this military. Two brats, no matter what clan they come from should be able to get into this tower!"

None of the four said anything, they knew it would be a logical assumption, considering one was an Uchiha and the other the heir of their Fourth Hokage and the mysterious blade mistress from the land of Whirlpool.

"Your mission is to now move in on the boys, we don't know what the Chunnin is coming prepared with and we are not taking any chances. Other teams have been told not to interfere, as we are not entirely sure what we are working at here. After this,all teams we be assigned to remedial training," Danzo growled. "Be gone."

The four members of the team disappeared in a swirl of leaves, the Third said nothing preferring to let the heavy hand come from subordinates in his own circle rather than his own. It allowed him to cultivate the image of a kind leader, rather than the monster that Iwa and Kumo had named him to be during the Second Secret War.

The Third's hands were followed together, his elbows on his desk. His eyes barely over the curve of his hands, he only got that way when he was seriously restraining himself from flying off the deep end. Jiraya had seen him walk away enough to know that, and Danzo had been on the receiving end of his anger outbursts growing up.

"I am going to need to put many of the guard teams through remedial training again, as well as begin to place Chakra sensors throughout the Village proper. I had hoped to have more time for them to refine their skills before I actually deployed them for even limited use."

"You have that many sensors in training," Jiraya said in surprise.

Both Danzo and the Third nodded, since they had been working together on the training for the teams. It had been hard to find so many with the talent, some of them were seasoned veterans who had survived the Kyuubi's rampage, but most were younger than even Naruto now. They had been pulled aside as the talent began to develop and refined by the older members. While small they were growing.

"We had hoped to have them ready for the Chunnin Exams, such a high profile event would need the extra security, but we're going to have to deploy them sooner if this is the state of the patrols. The boys should not have gotten to the gates without prior notice from me, and this mission was coded Black Ops from the start so neither of them should have gotten that far without being noticed."

Jiraya could not help it, he smiled slightly as thoughts of his student came back. Naruto was just like them as a ninja, and getting stronger by the day. His Seal Blossom technique had the potential to be as deadly as his father's Hirashin, if not more so if he used Youkai to engage the seal. The unstable nature of the Kyuubi's chakra would deliver devastating effects with an explosion seal, and on the battle field…the kid would become a monster to his enemies not even his father could.

"They have grown in interesting ways. Sasuke seems to be the right meld of Mitoko and Itachi and probably more stable than his brother, never could trust someone who could lock away everything that they feel," the Third said after a moment, looking at his old student. "Naruto is the one I am not really able to get a read on, I don't like that. I understand he has agreed to push for full control of the Namikaze estate as well."

"Yes, sensei," Jiraya spoke up. "He spoke with his mother this morning, I guess it's not really suprising considering his body isn't really twelve years old. I can't tell you how embarssing it was telling a seven year old what "morning wood" was."

Hiruzen chuckled slightly. "It's a good thing that he wants full control of what is his, but why now? Does it have something to do with that girl from Snow?"

Jiraya shook her head. "I know the remnants of her father's forces are staging something big, but it has nothing related to this. It's weird, Naruto seems to want something from the family vault in the Fire Capital. He has asked me more than once to take him there."

Hiruzen hummed slightly. He really wanted some tobacco now, what was the boy playing at? Was it dangerous to the village? What was going on with him?

"Does it relate to his powers, or to the seal," Danzo asked, watching as the boys came to a clearing about a mile from the city. "The sensors are scared to go anywhere near the Namikaze estates because of it. Something about it gives them nightmares that they can't overcome without the Yamanka clan wiping the memory of being there, and even then they are still weary of going anywhere near the compound."

"All I know is that it relates to family history. Minato might night have known his birth parents, but he did know a lot more history than he let on," Jiraya shrugged. It was always a sore spot for him that Minato had refused to entrust his whole history with him. The fact he let the populous believe that he was an orphan from no where and the powers that be had given him the name Namikaze had always created a tension. He himself had been an orphan, with no real ties to the past of Fire Country, but here, someone who should be proud of their family and their service hid, it was down right silly and pathetic to him. "It's nothing harmful as far as he will let me know, he just repeats it's importance over and over again."

"I love how secretive these clans are, especially the Uzumaki and the Namikaze. If I remember history right even the Fire Lord when he was a Shogun was scared to cross swords with the Uzumaki clan," Danzo sat in his chair with a loud thump. He looked every bit the old man who has survived two wars. "It's a hell of a legacy to live up too."

"Why did you send Sensors near the compound," Jiraya asked after a heartbeat of silence. "There is enough Youkai permeating the air because of Naruto that they should be scared of the place."

"They are now," Danzo shrugged. "Each of them refuse to go anywhere near the compound, and most of our Anbu patrols avoid it regularly too. The feeling of death is not something that people regularly enjoy exposing themselves too."

Jiraya nodded, he would have to work on the seal schema to make sure to alert Kushina if anyone was watching the compound. It was scary to think that they were able to get people that close without them knowing about it.

"They have civilian persona, using that it was easy to have someone walk by as if they were out for a stroll, their compound is after all near the central park of the village," Sarutobi said with a shrug. "We have kept them in the population as a worst case disaster and a training scenario. We didn't want targets painted on them and we only tried three times to get them to scan the compound, after the third mental breakdown we restricted all agents from the area."

Jiraya nodded. "It's a good idea, sensei. Kushina would not be happy if they say something that they were not meant too. The Uzumaki are brutal to people who poke where they are not wanted. When I helped to save Kushina during the assault against Whirlpool they would have made the Uchiha look positively welcoming."

Hiruzen nodded, not surprised in the least. He had met a few Uzumaki during the second war, and understood just how brutal and savage the family could be when their rage was unleashed. The Uchiha, who had wiped out an entire family for attacking one of their own, still paled by the Uzumaki wiping out an entire village to get at one man who had dared to try and defile one of their own. It was the stuff of nightmares, and warrior legend. Mercy was for friends, if you stood in their path there was none. It was that hard edge that kept all but the great villages from challenging them, and even then it was at a heavy price when Iwa finally took offense to them. The last total had placed nearly ten thousand shinobi dying in the assault that destroyed Whirlpool.

"We still haven't decided who to pair them with," Danzo said finally. This whole operation was taking to long for his liking. He would have prefered killing the bastard before he oculd do anymore damage to their shinobi ranks, but personal freedom laws had to be observed. It was after all what set them apart from the barbarians that they had dealt with for so long.

"You do know they already have their chosen teammate," Jiraya pointed out, shaking his head at how he had discovered the girl who was training with them. She was a better actor than he had ever seen considering the public face that she put out.

"Who is the other student they have been training with?" Hiruzen asked, taking his eyes off of the boys and their search. "I have tried to watch their training and what I have seen only makes sense when you add a third person into the mix."

"Someone who can hide from your crystal ball," Jiraiya said with a smile. He knew how much it frustrated the Hokage who used the Telescope technique when people learned to hide from it. It was his first lesson in stealth, how to get around the technique so that the Second could not keep tabs on them. It was also what made Orochimaru's activities so easily hidden. "I can't go into any more detail, the boys want the person protected, and that will be until such time all three of them can be in the open."

"Protected from what though," Danzo said. "As far as I know the people love Naruto and Sasuke, since none of them know about the Kyuubi."

"You know how many enemies the Namikaze have in Iwa?" Jiraya said. "They know he is here, there have been assassination attempts against both him and Kushina. Their third teammate wouldn't survive such things yet, she doesn't have someone of Kushina's caliber to fall back on at home."

Both men nodded, understanding the reasoning. It meant that she was from one of the Civilian families, which narrowed it down considerably with this class. Hiruzen had a small, proud smile, hidden in his eyes. The boys proved his will of fire had never truly died from the leaf. Protecting someone at all costs, especially those who could not protect themselves was something they could all understand, considering their own teammates had suffered greatly for their connection to them.

"Are you the reason that the two of them turned me down for training?" Hiruzen asked, turning back the globe. The boys were already at their staging area, nearly thirty minutes ahead of schedule. Why did they push themselves so hard?

Jiraiya shrugged. "I told them it would be a good idea to accept, they told me what I could go do with myself. Sasuke, I am not sure about, but I still think the little brat is still hell bent on revenge for the massacre, and Naruto…Naruto is trying to live up to legends, he's stressed all the time because of it. I don't think he wants to build on anyone's back but his own."

"Just like Kushina," he could feel a migraine coming. He had known Kushina since she was a gennin in the Whirlpool forces. The girl was far stronger in will than anyone else that he had yet to meet. But it was a weight that wore on the soul. There are moments these days where he could see her wish to just rest. "Kushina has taught them well."

"Just Naruto, Sasuke has most of his family scrolls, which she will help with, but Uzumaki training methods belong solely to Uzumaki," Jiraiya said, pointing at the screen, it was a rehearsed line that he had given many a times. "Are you seeing what I am seeing?"

Hiruzen nodded. "And the mystery deepens."

The telescope technique flicked again. What was acting against the powerful justu? It required a great deal of power, or knowledge of the specific seals that would blind anyone from realty. The boys remained in the center of the field

Danzo, who had been silent through the conversation, snorted and looked at him. "You're all seeing eye is losing it's sight, old man. I wonder if the ladies in the hot springs would like this."

Hiruzen looked at him darkly. "Suggest it and I will make you clean up Naruto's pranks for a year after I have given him cart blanche to give it to our forces."

Both Jiraya, who had been laughing, and Danzo who looked to be amused, suddenly grew pale. When Naruto was given cart blanche, nothing short of an act of god stopped his pranks.

* * *

Three hours had passed since their break in to the tower. He knew that the Ninja forces were on high alert and probably looking for them, but few ventured into the forests that surrounded Konoha the way that they did. It was one of the things that night just didn't permit, there were to many paths that had been unmarked and too many people had been lost to the forests.

Naruto had found an interesting jutsu at the beginning that had been sealed away because of the chakra requirements and mental backlash generated by use. He would have to talk to Kyuubi later about using it and seeing if his healing would keep his mind in one piece. Chakra was never a problem for Naruto, he snorted. Sasuke wondered in any of them had picked up on it yet, the truth of his power. Sasuke and by extension Kakashi probably suspected, he knew Yakumo did as well, only Kushina knew the entire breadth and she would never talk of the rest, but there were people learning. How long would they be able to keep it all secret?

"That's the one that you want," Sasuke looked over his shoulder to see Naruto standing there, looking at the scroll as well. "It will need to work on it though."

Sasuke could barely believe the information in the scroll. When had the First come up with this? Why had the first come up with this?

"Because it basically kills the user," Naruto said, looking it over quickly and then looking back up into the night sky. "It's a death sentence seal. It was created so that those who it was used on could be of some good to society in the end, it was stopped because of a psychic bleed-over creating a new breed of nut-jobs for the First Families to deal with. I think I understand what it does, but we are going to need to tweak it a bit. You sure you want to use this on her?"

Sasuke nodded. "She deserves all the help we can give her."

Naruto nodded, and pulled out a scroll from his packet His eyes narrowed darkly as he saw what came after it.

"We should just copy the scroll," Sasuke's eyes widened. "You know we need more information than just a single seal, we will return the original, but I am not letting this chance pass us by.

Sasuke nodded, looking at the scroll again as his friend prepared the copy scroll. "You see what's beneath it?"

Naruto looked.

"So he kept his notes here," Naruto said calmly as Sauske rolled it out farther so he could see all of it. Sasuke breathed in as he saw the same pattern that had been on Naruto's arm.

"How the hell do they have this information? I thought your mom said it was used only in Whirlpool. This isn't even the one that the fourth used on you." Sasuke said looking up from the scroll.

"Its the base matrix for the seal my dad used to consume the Kyuubi. It's built on the same principles, but since he didn't know what was going to be in me with my birth…"

"In common speech, please?" Sasuke asked.

"Death powers one, Life the other, fundamental opposites," Naruto said slowly. Damn it, there might be no way to fix this mess. Now he was going to have to find another way to finally put the Beast down. "The idiot was doing this to deny someone something though…the Kyuubi never talks much about why it attacked though. He said his memories are hazy from that time."

"What the fuck, how the hell can this be just this messed up," Sasuke threw his hands up in frustration. "My clan was wiped out because of some psycho path, and the entire village was almost wiped out by someone wanting to fuck with the Kyuubi?"

Naruto nodded. The strange thing was, that the attack on the Uchiha clan came before the ANBU could put down the revolt by their elders. There were all sorts of rumors flying about immortal Uchiha and their desire to control all of creation, but none about the attackers on the family. To this day an oppressive aura hung over the former Uchiha compound at the edge of the village proper. "You think this goes deeper than the Immortal Uchiha your brother told you about before he died?"

Sasuke nodded. "I think more than the shadows are working against you right now. Why else would your dad do something as stupid as split his soul?"

Naruto's eyes focused back on the seal. If Kohona had knowledge of the seal used to keep the Beast at bay, why didn't he use it? What else could have made him desire to sacrifice his life to the Death God instead? The price demanded by the Goddess of Life was nowhere near as high.

"Can you fix it?" Sasuke asked, suddenly worried. He had never seen Naruto this way.

"I don't know," Naruto said, looking the notes over. "The God of Death will work against anything I do, and I know even he isn't strong enough to deal with the Beast. The Death God refused to aid the Uzumaki when we tried to seal the Beast the first time."

"We've got to hurry, I am sure he will be here soon," Sasuke said darkly.

"Catch," Naruto said closing his eyes as he tossed him the scroll. He felt her connection and opened up to her. It was the strangest genjutsu but it worked, and it gave him another connection. Her presence filled him and suddenly the world went white, as Yakumo saw with his eyes.

* * *

Yakumo looked out her window at the Namikaze household. Naruto's mother had invited her to stay after the falling out she had with her own family. It was kind of awkward getting used to people wanting to be around her again. It was a nice change. Although, her first meeting with Koyuki had not been fun. It took an hour and a hundred apologies from Naruto before the girl forgave him for not telling her another girl was now living with him. Sometimes teenage minds were just so weird.

She felt the pulse of power that destroyed the viewing orb, and the presence of those around Naruto. Did he suspect? Did he know? How could he have known? There were four other presences there, one a stern teacher, her adoptive brother, another traitor to the village, and something worse. Should she tell Kushina?

"It's started," Yakumo looked at her mother. Kushina had become that for her. "They have begun to copy the scroll of seals."

"I don't like this," Kushina said, worried for her boys. "He knows that they are after him, they want to destroy him, and that they have a spy in the village. He should have let the Anbu handle this."

Yakumo shook her head. "He thinks that the spy is the one who set this up."

"I figured as much," Kushina shook her head. "He wouldn't be this excited by a mission otherwise, I can feel his power in the air even now."

"I thought that was dinner," Yakumo pointed out.

Kushina shook her head. Yakumo had a sarcastic mind when you got past the exterior, she did not regret for one moment helping the girl out when she was younger. "Someday Yakumo, I need to show you how Uzumaki fight. Not with words, but with the blade and our will. You're starting to turn out like my sister, the more time you spend with us. Hopefully you won't be half as crazy as your brother is."

"I am already neck deep, mom," she said earning a smile from the woman. "Besides, you have always taught it's better for us to set the field of battle, rather than let it be set for us. This is what he is doing now."

There was a heartbeat between them. Yakumo knew more of her brother's plans because he let her in, one of only a few. Even his mother he kept at arms length because of how he thought she would take everything. He still remembered what happened seven years ago.

"They are going to try and stop them," Yakumo looked at her seriously. "They know it's getting stronger and the seals that keep it in check will fail, even with his help last time, we barely survived the encounter. If they catch us off guard it might be something that we can't overcome."

Kushina remembered them, they had left her family torn apart and left her without a home. "This time I will be there too. I won't let them take my family from me again."

"They won't win," Yakumo said with a nod. "It's starting now, I can see it through Naruto's eyes right now. They will be alright."

Kushina nodded as her daughter looked out her window towards the forest, as if she could see where her brothers were. It was always unnerving with Yakumo to see her connection with her brother. Sometimes the genjustu she developed, she thinks she built the connection in, so if they ever used them she would know where they were.

It was comforting as well, because if she ever needed to find Naruto there was a way. She was worried, especially since she felt the wave of energy earlier in the day. He was losing control slowly; it was something that had never fought through before. Usually when it happened they would find someone to place the seal on seal him away once more, leaving only a portion of the beast in the original host, something that their seal and their will could fight. The problem happened because of the Kyuubi seal, now there was no chance of transfer to anyone. All that stood between the Beast and the rest of the world, was Naruto, the Kyuubi, and their small family. It did not inspire as much hope and security as it had before.

* * *

Naruto nodded as he felt the wave of chakra wash over him.

"Done. We can go over this later." Sasuke said as he finished rolling up both scrolls and putting one into the storage seal on his wrist. "Did you screen it so they could only see a bit?"

Naruto nodded. The white in his eyes faded, as Yakumo broke the genjustu. He could still feel her in his mind though. She was worried. She knew that they were there, Naruto had tried to hide it, but when she was connected to his senses in such a way there was little that he could hide from her.

"What are you two doing?" a furious Iruka came barging into the clearing. "Do you two have any idea how much trouble you have caused?"

Naruto nodded, while Sasuke motioned to their back. With a quick twist both of them fell towards the ground sending out two kunai each. Mizuki deflected both of them with his shuriken.

"Well, it seems I wasn't as clever as I thought," Mizuki said with a sneer. "I am surprised you came Iruka."

"The Village is in a uproar because these two stole the forbidden scroll," Iruka stated, his eyes narrowing. "What are you doing here Mizuki?"

"What do you think," he raised his fuma shuriken. The blades began to spin around his hand. "I am here to kill all of you."

"Fire," Naruto intoned. The ground began to shake around them as columns of liquid fire rose from the ground beneath them. Iruka watched stunned as a wave of power washed off of Naruto.

"Just stay out of his way," Sasuke snapped. "When he's like this there is nothing short of an act of God that can stop him."

"What is happening," Iruka asked, bewildered by the raging fires consuming the woods ahead of them. "What is that?"

"The power of the Uzumaki," Sasuke said seriously.

Mizuki was unnerved by the columns of fire that churned around him. The heat from them caused him to sweat. "So the demon shows his colors."

"You have no idea what a demon is," Naruto said in a low voice, his eyes downcast. He slowly looked up, the once blue orbs were gone, replaced with eyes of shimmering gold. "I will gladly show you though!"

Naruto surged forward. Mizuki blocked his punch with the flat of his blade. He swept the boy's legs out from under him, but Naruto hopped up and kicked towards his head. The boy, for such an impressive display of power was not much in terms of hand to hand.

"Is this the best that you can do, demon," Mizuki sneered. "You think I didn't know your secret? My master told me to watch you."

"You keep saying demon, like you understand" Naruto growled, dodging a slash from the fuma shuriken. "You have no idea what a demon is!"

The four columns of fire that had appeared around them collapsed inward, converging on the chunnin instructor. The man laughed as the fire consumed him.

"You think this is enough demon," Mizuki said from behind him. A kunai suddenly lodged in his stomach. Naruto collapsed to the ground, the fire around Mizuki breaking as it did. "You think I didn't know about you? They think Orochimaru is my master, but I know. I know boy, and you know that we are coming for you."

"You won't win," Naruto gritted out. He pulled the Kunai out, letting the blood flow freely from the wound. He slowly pushed up. "You think you know what it takes to stop me? Not even the Beast could, what makes you think you have it in you to bring me down."

Mizuki laughed. "The Beast is only playing with you boy, the beast will win in the end."

"Not if I kill him first," Naruto snapped viciously.

"What can you do," Mizuki smiled wickedly. "The idea that one such as you might truly be able to oppose us, and our master is unbelievable. They think that the Kyuubi is destruction incarnate, but it is nothing compared to what we will unleash with your death."

Mizuki backhanded him, sending him crashing into a burning tree, the flames he had summoned before dying away. Sasuke appeared overhead behind him, a kunai in hand.

"And so the second appears," Mizuki sneered, grabbing the boy out of the air into a choke hold. "You think your feeble skills will be enough for me boy?"

Sasuke brought his kunai into his arm, which didn't seem to affect Mizuki at all.

"For the service I have been granted power," Mizuki smiled tightly. "Ninja techniques and skills will not be enough to defeat me."

"Lightning," Naruto called out. From the absolute black of the night, three streaks of lightning came crashing down, ripping into the kunai, causing Mizuki to let him go.

As the lightning poured into his arm, Mizuki fell to his knees. He struggled to reach for the Kunai, yanking it from his arm and throwing it away.

"So this is your power," Mizuki growled. "No wonder they wanted to test you."

"You have no idea my power," Naruto snapped. "Though you will."

"Iruka," Sasuke hissed from the tree. "Now!"

Several kunai launched from the shadows, landing in a diamond around the traitor.

"Lightning," Naruto called out. This time five arcs of lightning struck the ground, creating a prison around the traitor.

"Not enough to stop me," Mizuki growled out, grasping one of the kunai and kicking apart a portion of the cage.

"It's not what he was going for," Naruto smiled. "Fire!"

Arcs of fire, wrapped around Mizuki. "What do you think you can do against me, demon!"

"Learn what it means when you face an Uzumaki," Naruto's eyes began to bleed. He suddenly shot forward. He slammed his fist into his stomach, as he bent over he brought his leg up and slammed a knee into his nose.

"Why," Mizuki screamed falling back. "How can I not counter you."

"You think they would give you the power to counter me," Naruto raised an eyebrow. "They think they know what I am? They have no idea."

He leapt forward, knocking the larger chunnin to the ground. Straddling his chest, Naruto began to punch his face, each blow clapping like thunder through the woods. Iruka moved to stop him, but felt someone grab his arm.

"Naruto, if he doesn't get this out, will take it out on you," he said. "He might let the traitor live, either way we have everything we need from this, so don't draw his ire to you."

"What's going on with him?" Iruka asked in wonder.

"This is his power, it's an exemplification of who he is yet to become," Sasuke said, watching as Naruto bashed Mizuki's head into the ground. "It's incredibly damaging from what I have seen, but he doesn't care, none of them ever have."

Naruto stood slowly, his knees simply lifting his body weight off the chest of the now dead Mizuki. He looked at him, his eyes so cold.

"Is it done, Naruto," Sasuke called out.

"It is," he whispered, only to feel a hand grasp his ankle.

"Foolish Uzumaki," Mizuki's eyes snapped open even though half his face was caved in. "They gave me power to kill you!"

Mizuki twisted and threw him into the now blackened trees.

"Shit," Sasuke roared. "Iruka-sensei, stand ready. We're in trouble."

Iruka drew two Kunai, settling into a fighting stance. "What the hell is that?"

"Poor, foolish Iruka," Mizuki chuckled as he stood. "I am hell!"

He moved towards them with a blast of wind, to be intercepted by a woman with purple hair, wearing a neko mask.

She kicked him hard in the face, sending the now beastly corpse towards Naruto. She moved into a fighting stance and settling into a battle stance.

"Where is Naruto," she asked darkly.

"Over there," Sasuke said with a point. "How did you get up? The seal he used should have kept you asleep all night."

"Jiraya released me," she snapped, as four more members of the Anbu appeared in the clearing. "What is that thing?"

"I have no idea," Sasuke admitted. "It's strong though, Naruto killed Mizuki before that thing came into play."

"You think you can protect the demon from me," the altering corpse roared. It's laughter echoed all around them. Fur began to grow from the corpse, and features took on a distinctly feline structure. "None of you are strong enough to stop me! What I have become is more than you can handle!"

"We'll see," Neko said darkly, chagrining forward drawing her blade.

"Let's pull back, we'll only get in their way," Iruka said, grabbing Sasuke's arm.

"You know this is not how I imagined this night going," Sasuke said, watching intently as the team of Anbu danced with the now cat-corpse.

"What were you thinking anyways," Iruka snapped, entranced by the dance of death. For all his enhanced strength, the corpse that was Mizuki could not handle the coordinated efforts of a team.

"It was coded Black-Ops by the Hokage when we told him," Sasuke said, looking towards Naruto. He sucked in his breath. "Oh, fuck."

"What," Iruka looked towards him. He sucked in his breath as the energy around Naruto became oppressive. It was like killing intent, but not.

"Die," Naruto roared, throwing his hands up in the air. Waves of golden energy poured off of him, filling the entire clearing. The fighting stopped between the anbu and the traitor's corpse as whatever was possessing it looked towards him.

"What is this," Mizuki's cat like form roared.

Naruto held his hands up forming a sphere with his hands. His face grimaced with the effort of projecting his power.

He snapped his hand shut, the golden sphere collapsed. The anbu, teacher, and friend watched as the sphere began to shrink. Mizuki-corpse laughed as the energy approached.

"Is this the best that you can do, little demon?"

Naruto said nothing, watching as the sphere touched the corpses's skin. That's when the screams came. Everyone watched as the arm was crushed by the golden energy, mangled like it had been pressed between two humungous boulders.

"What are you doing to me?" Mizuki roared.

Naruto said nothing, Neko gasped slightly, and Sasuke turned away, as the corpse was crushed, blood pouring over the field. Naruto's eyes hardened, before the energy faded away and he collapsed into the field, face first.

"What the hell was that," Iruka breathed. "My god, what is he capable of?"

"That was a last resort," Sasuke scowled. Naruto was not supposed to summon his powers like that, both he and Kushina had told him that. Why would he do it? What was going on? Was the Beast making another surge?

"We need to get the scroll back to the tower, and the Third wishes to speak with you three," Neko turned and looked at them. "I don't know if there is even anything we can take back, but a blood sample of the traitor."

"You need to take him to Kushina," Sasuke said pointing at Naruto. "She will know how to heal him."

"Wouldn't it make more sense…"

Sasuke shook his head. "They won't be able to fix what is wrong with him, just take him to Kushina-sama."

Neko motioned to two of her men and relayed it. "You get to explain this all to the Third."

Sasuke nodded, he had expected as much.

* * *

"What the hell just happened?" Danzo asked, stunned at the short battle, if you could call it that. The fight began and whatever had been blocking the telescopic technique had ended. "How the hell did he kill him?"

"Whatever it was, I think that is only the tip of what the kid is capable of. ," Jiraiya shrugged. "It's what happened to the first Iwa Nin who tried to break into the Vault. Naruto, if he doesn't like you, is far colder than even his father was."

Danzo and Hiruzen both tried to suppress the shivers brought on by the sudden chill in the room. "So do I want to know why they want the scroll of seals?"

"My guess is he wanted to see something on the seal that Minato placed on him," Jiraiya looked thoughtful at this one. "Naruto has been working on something for a couple years, what I don't know, but it is related to the Attack he had when he was a child."

"I wasn't aware anyone had targeted the boy," Danzo raised an eyebrow as he looked at the Hokage.

"It wasn't an attack by an outside force," Jiraiya began before the Hokage could put his spin on things. "It was something related to the seal as far as I know. I had arrived to see Kushina and the runt that day, when a sudden blast of ice ripped through the house from his room."

"That's not unusual during the winter, Jiraiya," the Hokage looked up, hoping he wasn't going to hear something strange.

"During the middle of summer?" Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at that. "His room was literally frozen over, sensei. I mean, the bed, the chairs, the desk, everythinging was turned to ice. And he was sitting there in the centre of it, surrounded by black and purple mist. He looked at us, and his eyes were gone, he tried to strike Kushina at that point, in fact she appeared to be his main target when he attacked. Kushina, while panicked, was able to keep him under control without hurting him too badly, and when she got close enough she delivered a chop to the neck and managed to knock him out. She then applied some seal I have never seen before to both of his arms and then put him in her room to sleep. She still won't tell me what was entirely going on that night."

Hiruzen nodded. "This isn't normal by any stretch is it?"

Danzo shook his head. "This is why you started teaching him sealing?"

Jiraiya nodded. "The seal on his arms is as complex as the one Minato used to seal the Kyuubi. I don't know what it does yet, but if it needs as much power as it appears, there could be trouble for him later on."

"I have a couple of gennin to indoctrinate to the proper chain of command in this village, and you two have jobs that need to get done. I will see you both later." Hiruzen said, inclining his head towards the two of them.

Both Danzo and Jiraiya nodded and disappeared from his office. He breathed deeply and looked up at his teachers and former successor. "What am I to do gentlemen? I have no idea what is going on."


	6. Chapter 6

AN: This has not been beta read, well it has and then I scarped it and rewrote a lot of the chapter. I am still not happy with it, but I have been holding onto it for far too long. I hope to make the situation with Naruto completely clear in the next few chapters, if I continue to write this.

Chapter 5 – Team Selection

"So you're telling me, Naruto will be out of commission for up to a week because of him using his powers," Sarutobi raised an eyebrow. "If the bloodline is so destructive, why do Uzumaki use it?"

"It's his bloodline," Kushina stepped up into the room. She had appeared not long after Sasuke, not telling either of them the condition of her now injured son."Of all of us, his is the strongest, but also the most destructive to himself. It's unique as far as my family goes."

This is one of the things that Kushina had never fully explained. While the bloodline of her family did share some common traits, for the most part each person had a unique ability. It was one of the strangest bloodlines that he had ever seen.

"How is Naruto?" Sasuke asked, finally speaking up. For the most part after giving his report on what happened, editing out the part of them copying the scroll, he had remained silent..

"As good, as can be expected, considering what he put himself through," Kushina looked to the third. "It will be about a week before he is able to return to active duty."

"That long," Hiruzen looked shocked. "The fight only took a few minutes at best."

"The longer he holds his powers and uses them the more damage that he does to his body," Kushina shook her head. "I knew it was bad, but I didn't think he would hold it that long."

Hiruzen folded his hands together and leaned against the desk, with his elbows propping him up. This was most troubling. They had planned on Naruto being on a Front-Line team, but with such a glaring weakness…

"Don't even think about it," Kushina snapped. "If you take him off the Front-Line team he won't be happy with you."

"But such a weakness," Hiruzen began.

"Can be overcome," Kushina shook her head. She had heard things herself from her original teacher in Whirlpool how her bloodline could never be overcome. "You knew my grandfather, you understand how we are. If we are forced back, we find a way to stand out more. He isn't going to stop."

Hiruzen shook his head. "You know you and your damn family are very troublesome."

Kushina smiled. "You wouldn't have it any other way old man. So are you going to show me what happened, or am I going to have to have Inochi pluck the memories from one of the boys?"

Hiruzen chuckled and brought forth the telescopic orb. With a few seals the images from last night played back for them all to see.

* * *

The boy had been out for several days now, the Kyuubi didn't know what to make of it. His reserves were full, his bones and all wound mended, and yet he did not wake up. It was as if something was forcing him to remain in place, and he could find nothing human causing it.

The Kyuubi watched as the boy tried to sleep. His eyes were tightened in pain, and a grimace passed his lips ever few minutes. He could not peer into his mind as he normally would when he dreamed, somehow the Beast had cut them off. The once gigantic demon infected shuddered. He still remembered the tales of the Beast when the ancients tried to fight after the humans had failed. In countless battles so many fell to them, before a single man had managed to break the Beast's power for the first time and drive the Beast into hiding. It was scary to think what the humans of this clan were capable of. The boy was living proof that they were capable of pulling off the impossible.

His muzzle twisted slightly, he could smell something. He faded from the room, leaving the boy for now. He would return soon, and hopefully be able to help him through these nightmares. As he left the room he missed the boy's pained gasp as he arched back off the bed.

* * *

…It was absolutely black, he was breathing hard, the fight had taken so much out of him. A pair of red eyes, cut like diamonds opened before him.

"So this is all that your clan has left, this is all that they are truly capable of," a voice boomed.

"You won't win," he demanded. The blade in his hands felt heavy, how was he supposed to do this? The beast had overwhelmed all weapons in the area, human were reduced to but the simplest of their once great arsenal.

The darkness laughed, a booming throaty laugh. "You humans, so many grand proclamations that mean nothing in the end."

"You underestimate us, beast," he felt the power pulse through him. He was an accident, the mistake of the quest for perfection, but now he would show them just what a mistake he was. He looked up into the inky ether.

"Though I walk into the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil," he said softly, he could see her smile in the darkness. "I will come back to you, I promise."

The darkness laughed once more. "You truly are a fool."

"Tell me that, after this ends," he grinned. "Let me show you my will, Beast!"

The world exploded as a cocoon of light wrapped around him…

* * *

It was supposed to be a goddamn simple ass job. The Uzumaki's were only a few in number and they left their entire north of their compound exposed to protect their precious forest. Stupid tree huggers…he grunted in pain as he finally made his way into the house.

Somehow his intelligence had failed to mention the literal mine field of explosive notes and other trap seals that protected the entire north side of the compound. He was pretty sure that his home village did not have nearly as many traps scattered along the cliffs that surrounded them. "God damn Uzumaki, it's not enough you killed so many of us during the war."

The Yellow Flash may have been legendary to his people, but the Clan Uzumaki and the warriors of the Whirlpool had become the things of nightmares. Of the ten thousand ninja that had attacked the village, only three survived, and even then they only survived long enough to tell of the attacks failure, and the final spite that the people of the Whirlpool had unleashed.

"You know boy, you shouldn't have come," a voice boomed behind him.

He spun around to see a fox standing there, with nine tails…what in the world. Before he could say anything he felt another gust of wind against his back, he spun around and saw the fox again.

"You should not have come here," the voice boomed again. "You should have stayed away, in the end it might have been safer for you."

"What do you know, you stupid animal," the man sneered. He reached for a Kunai. "I will kill you, and anyone else here."

Another blast of wind, he spun around. His eyes were wrong, there was no other way to explain it as a blot of ink slowly spread through his vision. He screamed as hand shout and pulled him in.

The Fox, smirked, and laughed slightly. "About time you woke up brat, you find anything else new out?"

* * *

"So, teams…"

The Third Hokage stopped and inhaled sharply. The gathered jounin corps looked around in confusion as the room's temperature dropped dramatically. Kushina breathed in, as she felt the shadows wrap around her in a protective embrace. After she felt her son's anger last night, she didn't think he could get any angrier. She felt her son's presence in her mind, before she saw him move forward from the shadows.

_This is new_, she thought as Naruto stepped into the room. His eyes locked on the Hokage and Danzo.

"Naruto," the third breathed, watching the shadows of the room. "Is there a reason you decided to breach the tower again?"

The jounin froze. There was no way that the brat should have been able to penetrate the tower. He threw something in front of him, a forehead protector. He looked at Danzo, awaiting and explanation. Kushina smiled inwardly, at least her son would not buckle in the face of the Fire Lord's court when he moved up there.

It was a hitai-ate from Iwa. She nearly leapt out of her seat. If Naruto was here it meant whatever had come to the house had been neutralized. "Can you tell me how this slipped past either of you?"

Sarutobi and Danzo both wondered what the boy was talking about, when a body fell from the shadows. It was missing an arm and it looked like the blood flow had been stopped. The face was purpled and bruised, but both of them recognized the man. He was a recent immigrant from Tea country and had been looking to start a bakery. They had even helped him pick out several spots in the downtown district that could be prime locations for such a business.

_Damnit, Minato,_ the old man cursed, as the most terrifying gennin hopeful in a generation. _You should be the one facing his ire, not me!_

"This is the fourth one in as many months," Naruto growled. "There is a control seal on him too."

He flipped the body over, and pointed to the base of his neck. A pulse of chakra and the seal exposed itself. "Whoever got into this village is a novice in the sealing arts, but it's enough he can implant false personalities in people."

Danzo did not like this, how had a seal expert of any sort gotten through their screening of immigrants to the city. "Thank you for bringing this to us."

Naruto nodded, looking at the Third. "I placed new seals around the Vault, the next one who attempts this, won't live."

Naruto turned to his mother, and strode over to give her a hug. She smiled faintly, he was such a good boy sometimes. "I will see you at home, Mother?"

She nodded. "We'll make some tempura for dinner tonight. I am glad you're up, son."

He nodded and then turned back to the shadows. He walked towards them, and she watched them wrap around her son and he disappear.

"That's new," she said, looking at the Third.

"You mean he hasn't been doing this before?" Hiruzen asked, still in a stupor about the new ability. The Nara's would kill for it.

"I have never seen it before, in any of my family," Kushina said. "I don't know if he even realizes what he is doing."

"This will have to be studied later," Danzo motioned to two of the guards to secure the prisoner. "We need to conduct a sweep of the village, we need to find the agent that is working at getting the vault."

"What are you recommending?"

"A halt on immigration to the City, and new back ground checks on those who have migrated in the last few months," Danzo looked at the man who was only now groaning. The boy and the seals around the Vault had done a number on him.

"Why are they trying to get the Vault anyway?" Danzo looked at her. "You told me it was only the History of the Uzumaki and Namikaze families."

Kushina nodded. "It's all there is. I have been over it a thousand times in the last ten years, and I can't find anything that would interest another hidden village. Even the Hirashin seals weren't placed in the Vault."

The Hokage rubbed his chin with fingers itching for his pipe. He had loved mysteries as a child, but after his training with the brothers his love had faded. He still loved piecing together the occasional puzzle, but in the Ninja world a puzzle usually meant more paperwork, and he hated that.

"I want you to go over it again, Kushina-chan," the Hokage said, gathering his notes on the graduating class. "We need to know even the slightest hint of why they have made so many attempts on the Vault recently, but have ignored it till now."

"It will be done, Hokage-sama," the woman nodded, closing her eyes and trying to shake the feeling of dread that had come up in her stomach.

"Let's begin then," the Hokage said with a nod. What followed next was an amazing scene of barter that the traders would have been proud of. Strengths and weaknesses of each graduate had been assessed and reassessed and teams had slowly been formed.

Tried and true methods, the tracker, the assault team, and the spy team had been thrown out the window with the restructuring of the curriculum that Danzo and the Hokage had done three years prior.

Now graduates weren't allowed to fail, if their teams could not grasp the concept of teamwork they would be shunted into a remedial system where it would be beaten into their skulls until they were ready on the other side of the program to be the Ninja that the community needed.

The loss of several tracker and recon teams had forced the restructuring. No longer could teams afford to specialize in a given area, even the Hyuuga had been forced to adapt to the changes in the combat climate. Their forces and been replenished to pre-war levels, and average strength of fighters put them at the top in all categories.

The exceptions had turned out to be the two that they were counting on the most. Saskue Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, sons of two of the most prominent clans in the fire country, and the last two that he had expected to excel at such a staggering rate. When Naruto's abilities began to emerge both of them were already at the top of the class, now they excelled and could beat even some of the mid-guard forces as the night before had shown him.

"They come as a package deal, Hokage-sama," Kushina began as both names came up, "you get one, you get the other, they won't accept it any other way."

"I still can't believe how Naruto got him over his brooding stage," Kakashi chuckled, wondering if Obito had the power would he have done the same.

Kushina laughed slightly as the image of Sasuke, strung up like a ham came to mind. Her son had left him there to scream to his heart's content, and when he was finally done, he had thrown him into the pond across the family home. When it came to pissing each other off the boys were very good.

"Who thinks they can teach them?" the Hokage asked.

"I am not sure if there is anything I could teach them," Kurenai said, looking other the dossier that had been prepared on the boys. It galled her to think that two boys not out of the Academy yet had tested so strong. If what Naruto had just done was any indication of what they could do when pushed, she knew that she wouldn't be right for them.

"Me either, pops," Asuma remarked, blowing smoke from his mouth. "Why don't you take them?"

"Refused," Hiruzen said with a hint of sadness. "I offered it to him after his powers began appearing, but the boys both looked at me and told me to get bent."

This caused a lot of people to stare. Naruto and Sasuke had turned down a chance to learn from the Third, who had refused to teach again after his failure with Orochimaru?

"Quite a situation you find yourself in, sir," a voice laughed from the shadows.

"Do you think you can handle them?" Hiruzen asked the shadows. "A lot of our village forces can barely keep up with them when they are on the move."

Stepping out a smirking snake mistress smiled. "I guess I'll need to work on that."

"You're not as good as Naruto," he said with shrug. "I ask again, do you think you could handle them?"

Anko shrugged. "Brats are brats, I can deal with one or both of them."

Hiruzen nodded, praying that Murphy wasn't listening right now. Anko would be in for it if the boys decided that she wasn't taking them seriously.

"Anko-chan," Kushina said softly. "Don't underestimate them, they push each other to excel and now Naruto's own powers are starting to mature."

Anko nodded, the powers were a topic of debate over at T&I, R&D had asked for a blood sample and was promptly told what they could do, and even the Commander-General had been looking into recruiting the brats.

Kakashi, seeing the question in her eyes decided to answer for her. "Sasuke has a room at Kushina's. He hasn't lived in the Uchiha district since Naruto threw him into a pond."

"Though he claims he was trying to throw him into a lake to drown him," Kushina snorted and let out a laugh. "It's funny to watch those two operate."

Kakashi nodded, remembering the last sparring match he had with the boys. They were good and with a little bit more work they would be even better. Now, if only their last teammate would drop her act and get to work. He probably would have considered taking them as team, if he hadn't felt he could be of more service to the current operations going on in Black-ops.

"They are good team," Kakashi nodded finally, returning to his position near the ANBU commander.

"That's what happens when kids train together for five year straight, with no breaks," Kushina commented dryly. She didn't like that her son was fighting at all, but there was little she could do to change his mind after the attack.

Kakashi nodded, remembering his own childhood, after his father's death he had thrown himself into training, he had gained an incredible amount of skill in such a short time.

"So Anko, do you think you're ready for them?" Hiruzen quirked an eyebrow.

"If Kushina approves, sure." Anko looked at the rest of them.

Kushina nodded. She was happy someone else would get to share the joy she felt watching over the brats train for sixteen hours a day. Combine that with Naruto's attempt at pranking her, and she could use a little break. She still had to work out a training schedule since he was planning on announcing his engagement soon.

"They know that they are going be a Front-Line team, right?" Anko asked, looking over her shoulder at the Third.

He nodded. "It's been explained to both of them, in fact both boys have one B-ranked mission already. I am sure you saw the results of Mizuki's subterfuge earlier today."

Anko nodded. She remembered the corpse they had brought in. They had let Inochi at him, only to find that there was nothing left, not even memories. Whatever the brat had done, it had been an effective technique.

"Is there anything specific that I need to be aware of?"

"Sasuke has mental issues because of the massacre of his family. He feels like he is in Itachi's shadow because his brother took the killing blow for him, before killing whatever it was that attacked the clan," Kakashi began. "We've worked through as much as we can, but there is still some there. His competitive nature has developed from that. He is also obsessed with finding a way to help his mother."

Anko nodded, she had visited Mikoto to see if the healing venom from one of her snakes would help. It had given her skin a healthier colour, but not much else. Whatever had her trapped was more than medicines could heal.

"Nartuo, has anger issues," Kushina said. "There are points where he will fly off the deep end, and I mean badly. With the Seal Blossom from Minato he can restrict anyone's movement with a touch. I have seen him do it blocking a sword strike before, so it doesn't have to be skin to skin contact."

"Like a genjutsu?" Anko raised an eyebrow. These were some pretty interesting brats here, she needed to get out of Torture and Interrogation more often.

Kushina shrugged. "I guess, it's a little more complicated than that, but you don't have enough knowledge of sealing to understand it."

Anko nodded. Sealing was one art that she had avoided with a passion.

"Third teammate, the brat that's living with you?" Anko asked.

Kushina shook her head. "Promise is a promise, you will find out at the team meetings, they want it to be a surprise to everyone."

"I don't like surprises, Kushina," Hiruzen barked.

"Of course you don't," Kushina smiled unrepentantly. "It's their call though. It's a good kind of surprise, if nothing else, Sarutobi."

He nodded in acceptance. "Well, I guess we will all be watching this with baited breath. What do we do about the rest of the Cohort?"

"Most of them need to go through Remedial course," Kurenai said, looking at the compiled stats. "Their scores in ninjutsu and taijustu are too low to form coherent teams."

Hiruzen nodded. "Well, now that that is done, let's get ready to meet your teams."

* * *

Naruto and Sasuke walked towards the academy, both of them dressed in the same strange armor that Naruto had taken to wearing when he was younger. While Naruto's was all black, Sasuke had a brown and green set of the armor that worked well as camouflage in the forests of Kohona. With Naruto's help his stealth training had increased to the point that the dreaded fan girls could not find him.

"So you ready to do this?" Sasuke asked as the two approached the main gate.

"Why do you ask me stupid questions?" Naruto quirked an eyebrow. "Seriously, I mean since when have your fan girls scared me?"

"Since some of them became your fan girls?"

Naruto hung his head, while Sasuke got a wide smile. It wasn't every day that he got one up on his brother. "So, did you see my idea for the matrix I showed you?"

Naruto nodded. "It could work, but it's going to need some improvements. We've got to get the restoration matrix right, or else everything else is worth shit. The reason the other seal will work is it's a slow build. If we try and force it to mimic my healing abilities, it could fry her brain permanently."

Sasuke nodded. What good would it do to give his mom back her mind, if the memories weren't unscrambled so that she could still think? He had applied the atrophy seals the other day and he had seen noticeable improvement in his mother's body. The medical seals were working as they hoped, for now, but they would need to keep watch over them. The doctors all sat around stunned as they tried to work on the only long term coma patient left in the hospital. The Hokage had refused to let them pull the plug on her, because on the off chance she was able to come back, consequences and costs be damned.

"I was glad Jiraiya had already worked out the medical seals and we didn't have to wait for them to be finished."

Naruto nodded. "It's still going to be a painfully slow process. Your mom has been like this for a long time, it will take even longer for her to get back into fighting form."

He nodded, remembering the last time he had seen his mom practicing the Interceptor style. If there was ever someone who made it look like art, it was her. It was the same way Kushina took to the blade, his mother was simply awesome with the Interceptor style, better than even Itachi had been.

"We've got time now that the process is started," Sasuke said, finding a happy thought in his head. It would be awesome to hug his mother again. The hugs he got from Kushina were great, but nothing could beat his mom's.

"Pinky and the Blonde Brain at three," Naruto mumbled as Sasuke stiffened. His two most ardent fans,. Seriously, hadn't he dropped enough hints that he didn't like them that way?

As the two approached, Naruto moved off to the side slightly, when one them tried to get near him he simply side stepped and then leapt over the other. Their ninja skills were better than this, weren't they?

"Get over it you two," Sasuke called back. "I doubt we will be on the same team, so find something else to obsess over!"

"Sasuke is so cool!" Sakura called out.

"Did she really just say that?" Naruto looked dumbfounded.

Sasuke sighed and nodded. Fan girls always had to ruin his day, god he couldn't wait to freak them all out permanently. He was lucky Kushina had told them that if any of them came into the compound she would use them as a sword dummy.

"Let's go before they start getting anymore ideas," Naruto gestured to the building. He whispered, "I think we may have a second actor for the family."

Sasuke nodded and they disappeared into the building, away from the terror that they had dealt with for years.

* * *

"So Anko-chan, how does it feel to be a full jounin?" Kurenai asked her friend as they made their way towards the academy.

"Interesting," Anko looked over the dossiers that the academy teachers had prepared for her. After hearing what happened in the forests the night before she was wondering just what she was getting herself into.

"Don't get too nervous," Jiraiya said, from ahead of them. "The boys are dedicated to their studies. If you're lucky you can get Naruto to look at the cursed seal for you."

Anko rubbed her neck unconsciously. "You still think the brat can do it?"

"The Uzumaki are older than the Namikaze and better than them at sealing techniques," Jiraiya said. "I know Minato was going to ask Kushina to look at it for you before the Kyuubi attack, if you would work up the courage yourself I am sure she would too."

Anko growled at the old man. It was a sore spot with her, talking with Kushina was hard. She always got so nervous around the woman, like she was about be scolded for being a bad girl like her mother had when she was younger. She just gave off that kind of vibe.

Jiraiya chuckled. "You get too flustered too easy Anko-chan."

"I'll give you flustered!" she snarled, trying to charge him, only to be stopped by Kurenai.

"Do you know anything about these powers that Naruto has?" Kurenai looked up at this, curious as to the tears of blood that she had seen earlier in the day.

"No idea, but try not to get him angry, the tears of blood state hurts him even worse than the state that he used against the traitor," Jiraiya said softly. "We have worked on his control as much as possible, but he still gets angry, and it takes him anywhere from an hour to several days to recover from their use."

Kurenai's mind reeled. "That's crazy."

"It's the nature of the power that he has," Jiraiya said grimly. "When the first Iwa nin tried to break into their house, Naruto's Tears of Blood manifested for the first time and he was in the hospital for five days afterward."

Anko nodded. "What happens during it?"

"Enhanced speed, strength, and stamina, to levels that I haven't seen since fighting Hanzo. He also had control of the wind element to a degree and ability to manipulate it. Like I said, it is an enhancement, but it hurts him, even with his insane healing rate."

"Then we need to make sure he doesn't need to fall back on it."

Jiraiya nodded. "You need to leave him time to learn from his mom too, he is thinking about shaking a lot of things up, and needs to train with her hard. You're going to have to put him through the paces too, just trust me on this. You need to break him of his dependence on seals. I told the jounin originally when they viewed the tests, he cheated via seal usage."

"Yugao is going to be jealous," Kurenai said. "She has wanted to learn Uzuamki fighting styles since she learned about them."

Jiraya shrugged. "Uzumaki's have always and will always be a tradition bound family. Even if those traditions change there are still some things they will never let go of. Unless she marries Naruto, which is not going to happen, then she won't learn the style. She can use the Outer style all she wants, but the true art will always be an Uzumaki's."

Kurenai wondered what it would be like to be from the oldest Ninja line in existence. The Uzumaki's had been around since before the Great Burn, though much of their history was shrouded they were generally thought of as incredibly powerful as a clan.

"It sounds like Anko is going to have her hands full," Asuma said, having been remarkably silent till this point.

Jiraiya nodded. "The boys are the hammer, and third member is more than likely the scalpel. I have seen them train before, it's kind of strange to see them mesh so well."

"You're still not going to tell her who her third member is, are you?" Kurenai asked, chuckling at the scowl on Anko's face. "And I guess I have to speak to Kushina about visiting the Namikaze estates, I would like to speak with Yakumo again."

Jiraiya nodded, having expected as much. The Kurama clan had forbidden Kurenai from seeing the girl again after the seal had been put in place. Apparently she had been getting too many notions in her head that they just didn't like. He still got a smile every time he remembered the look on her uncle's face when he ran into the immovable object that was Kushina Uzumaki. With the boys backing her up there was a formidable force.

"This is going to be a trip," Anko admitted. She was still sore about not knowing who their third teammate was, but she could deal. The boys couldn't be that devious. "I never thought they would actually make me an instructor."

"He wouldn't have if we could have split the boys," Jiraiya admitted. "They would run roughshod over almost anyone else."

"Yugao is still pretty sore over what the boys did the other night," Kurenai admitted as they entered the school grounds. "She can't believe one, that she lost control like that, and two, that they were able to get one person past her."

"You do know that Naruto has seals that influence moods, right?" Jiraya looked at her. "He has a method for applying them to his weapons that meant one strike, or a block from him and she would have been infected. He has used it on me enough times."

"Is sealing really that powerful?" Kurenai, a student of the mind, seemed awed by the possibilities.

Jiraya nodded. "The Sage Arts are the only things that I have never seen replicated by sealing, everything else is entirely possible. You're only really limited by knowledge, imagination, and will power."

"It's the same in every discipline, but true masters are able to warp the world around them to fit their needs, no matter the art. If you can push the boys in standard Ninja arts, they will be that much further along by the time they take their Jounin exams," Jiraiya admitted.

Kohona had nearly sixty five hundred gennin teams at the moment, it was an impressive array, especially considering specialized training had ended. The Remedial Units caught teams up that had not managed to make it through on the first go, in many cases literally beating into them why the failed, but they were manageable by the time they left.

With the increase in gennin teams, and the improvement in basic skills, chunnin were beginning to show signs of being stronger as a unit, as they had during the last great war.

Jounin ranks were still sparse, but in the next exam there would be thirty five chunnin ready for the exams and the push into the Jounin ranks.

ANBU were at full strength for the first time in years, but had gotten very lax. Too many of them were old guard from before the mandatory educational changes. Sarutobi had handed them over to Gai for two weeks of intensive training after the last prank Naruto pulled, even the Commander-General. Eighty five hundred and thirty six ninja, and half of them under trained, to oppose a madman and his army of ninja. Hell if this wasn't going to be interesting.

"Why are you with us though, Jiraiya-sama?"

He looked at the jounin. "Why do you think? The boys are still my apprentices even if I am letting Anko take them as a team. The only reason I can't form another cell is because of my mission as the Spy Master as well."

He looked at Anko at this point. "Your past is your past, I get that, but if you fuck them over I will end you."

The threat was the end of the conversation as Anko looked stunned. She doubted that her own sensei had cared that much about her when he was under her command.

* * *

Kakashi, with his masked donned, stared as the boys moved into the room. He had wanted to see them off before he went to his mission. The ANBU Commander-General stood next to him.

"You put a lot of time into training them?"

Kakashi nodded. "I was there when Naruto learned to walk, I was also nearby when his powers began to manifest. I was also the one who brought back his girlfriend for him."

The ANBU Commander-General chuckled at that. It was a running joke how Kakashi had brought back a girlfriend for Naruto, yet could not seem to stay attached if his life depended on it.

"Where is our first mission to?" he asked, turning away from the window.

"The Village of Hidden Sand," the ANBU replied. "There are reports that the Ichibi Container is out of control again, this time we're the ones assigned to bring him out."

"So it's starting already?" Kakashi said in surprise.

The other man nodded. "We know of some strange connections between Sand and a new hidden Village known as the Sound. Our mission is to deny Sand its main offence weapon, the fact that it helps us further our goals on the other front is a plus.

Kakashi nodded, and both of them left the scene via shushin.

* * *

Danzo handed the report to the Hokage on the Rock Infiltrator that had been captured by the Uzumaki boy. With the removal of his arm he was more than happy to talk, just to never have to be near the monster again.

He smirked slightly. It was good that the boy could inspire such fear, if what Jiraiya was reporting was true, they were going to need him to be that monster soon.

"So, they are after the Vault because of some ancient legend?"

Danzo nodded. "The Uzumaki are the oldest family in the Elemental Nations. They were said to have records from before the Great Burn."

Sarutobi nodded, remembering the stories from his childhood. He had met an Uzumaki once on the battle field during the second secret war. The man was unstoppable, and literally decimated a Cohort from the Hidden Cloud on his own. He then turned to him and told him to leave, and not to approach Whirlpool again.

He didn't know that little more than a generation later the Whirlpool would be destroyed by some unknown force and all but one of the Uzumaki would die fighting. Kushina refused to tell him what happened, but the haunted look in her eyes whenever she spoke of it told him all he needed to know.

Hidden Rock had claimed credit for ending the Uzumaki, which in turn led to the third secret war between the Hidden Rock and Kohona. Kushina had been part of that war and he saw first-hand why the Uzumaki had been so feared. She had slaughtered and entire garrison before numbers began to overwhelm her. It was then that Minato had appeared and used the finished Hirashin to devastate the remaining ranks. Together, they had tallied over a thousand kills that day, though most of it was credited to Minato and his Hirashin, which actually suited him just fine.

"You need to try and talk with her Sarutobi. We need to figure out what is going on, and why Rock wants the Vault so desperately."

He nodded, not liking the way this was going at all.

* * *

Naruto tried not to cringe as he heard the shrieking of the banshee brigade. How the hell could they not get it through their heads that Sasuke wasn't interested in them? Sasuke hadn't been actively looking for love, they were only twelve after all, and he was closer with Yakumo than any other girl in the village. If anyone had a chance it would be her. Though, he did catch him glancing at the Hyuuga girl every now and then.

"How the ribs holding up?" Sasuke asked, poking him in the side.

He cringed. "They're fine."

"I still can't believe you pissed off Neko like that," Sasuke smirked. "I would call you a masochist, but I know Koyuki actually thinks your sense of humor is funny."

"The only way for Neko to make a mistake is to get her mad, it doesn't lessen the effect of the blows though," Naruto shrugged. "She is an effective officer, but her temper get to her. She's not as calculating as Mom is, and you know how she gets when she is angry."

Sasuke nodded. They had another pond at the Namikaze residence the last time Kushina got angry.

"How do you think the teams will stack up?"

Naruto smirked.

"You didn't?"

He nodded. "It was the only way to ensure that we got together. Sakura has been training with us, there is no point in us abandoning her now. With us she will grow to inspire more dread then Mom or Tsunade combined."

Sasuke shuddered as he remembered the last spar with Sakura. Her strength had grown by leaps and bounds, to the point she was almost physically strong as Naruto, and had a vicious streak hidden behind those green eyes.

That was what had happened in their last spar. One errant block and suddenly she had him in the scariest situation he had ever had the misfortune of being in for nearly a full minute before releasing it at his forfeit. When she said she could modify it to be something really scary, he shuddered.

"The touched based genjutsu are good, do you think she can handle the Namikaze Battle Dance though?"

Naruto nodded. "She's got the basic forms down."

Sasuke shuddered again. From what Kakashi had told him, the nature of the genjutsu broke the Sharingan's copy ability. Because of her control there was no idea when it was coming, and the speed she was gaining, she would easily be one of the most formidable gennin in the Ninja Forces.

"How do you think they will react to her?"

"We're about the find out, they're coming now," Sasuke groaned as the door slammed open and Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka came storming into the room. Before he knew it, they were at the level he and Naruto were sitting at, screaming to please sit next to him.

"Move it, Naruto!" Sakura roared. "Can't you see, Sasuke-kun doesn't want your presence near him."

Naruto looked at him, and then looked at her. "Are you seriously mental?"

"What, did you say?" she growled.

"You come in here, for the better part of four years, screaming to hell and back that you want to sit next to him and that he doesn't want anything to do with me, and yet we still sit here every day, and we still talk with one another," he looked back at Sasuke. "Do you know what today is?"

She looked hopeful as she growled. He nodded and smiled. She slipped in the other side next to Sasuke who left the class stunned.

He shrugged. "They have a right to one brain dead moment a day."

Naruto shrugged and looked back at them. "What's the first rule of being a Ninja?"

"What are you going on about, you baka?" Ino screeched.

"You strike silent," Yakumo whispered into her ear, shimmering into view. "You leave no trace."

Before she could turn she was on the ground clutching her side. She looked up to see Yakumo Kurama standing there, dressed in standard combat gear, and a smirk on her face. "You are far from silent."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Ino screeched.

"What do you think?" Yakumo snapped. "I have been privately trained since I moved in with the Uzumaki. I could have been a gennin at age ten, but my skills are more oriented towards logistical support, even more so than the Nara. So I am here to meet the teams and help organize this Cohort for the Hokage."

"Yeah right, who would train you?" Ino snapped, not liking the girl at all. She was far too close to Sasuke for any of their liking.

"My mother trained her," Naruto said. "Are you about to question her abilities?"

Ino gulped. One thing everyone knew was that you didn't insult the Fourth's wife. She was considered one of the strongest in the village, and her skills had not declined over the last ten years. She shook her head violently getting Naruto to back down.

"You need to learn that Ninja fight silently, we move with precision, keep your mouths shut and you might just make it in this world," Yakumo said, plopping down right next to Naruto. "Finally ready to let that mask drop?"

Sakura nodded. "It's been a long time, now we can tag team these two!"

Ino looked on in wonder, what was going on here?

Yakumo looked excited at the possibility. "I can even help you learn my touch genjustu!" Both boys shuddered.

Iruka walked in, looking stunned at the three of them sitting there as if it were a normal day. He had heard a bit about Yakumo's training from Kushina the last time she had stopped by to talk about Naruto. The girl was going to be a force to be reckoned with. The real surprise was a fierce looking Sakura sitting to Sasuke's left with a smile on her face and not hanging from his arm like a purse. Would wonders never cease?

"I congratulate you all on passing," Iruka began looking at each of them. "I look forward to working with each of you in the future as you move forward through the ranks of the Ninja Force. Your missions will not get easier, so remember that your strength lies in each other, and that together you can accomplish the objective laid before you. I won't tell you a romantic tale about being heroes, because we're not. Our livelihood depends on the missions that you will undertake, never forget that. Without the blood, sweat and tears that you will expend the world that we know would not exist. Be ready, for it's not as pretty as some stories would lead you to believe."

Iruka began to call of teams, he knew who the sensei and his team would be so Naruto laid his head on the table.

"Team 7 will be Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, sensei Anko Mitirashi."

"Teams are supposed to be teams of three," Ino pointed out.

"We have our third member," Naruto pointed at Sakura. "She's sitting with us."

There was a gasp from every girl in the room. They pretty much expected Naruto and Sasuke to be together, they had looked out for each other enough over the years that it wasn't so hard to believe that they would take steps that would keep themselves on the same team, the real shocker was Sakura though. How the hell had she gotten there?

"That's not fair!" some random girl screeched.

"Stand down, now, gennin," Iruka ordered in a cold voice. "Naruto, what are you talking about?"

"What do you think? She's the third team member, the first rule of Kohona is never to leave anyone behind, and I am not about to start now."

* * *

Hiruzen smiled as he watched the display. This was definitely out of left-field but it was workable. A civilian born girl who was able to keep up with two of the principal clans of the country. It would make a great sales pitch.


	7. Chapter 7

AN: This is the last of the writing i have done since I was stuck with CPA exam studying. It might be a while before I update more, but hopefully I can write a good tale and give you guys reason to keep reading. This is not beta read since I rewrote a large section of it. Anyways, enjoy.

Chapter Six – A Bond Forged

***The Magic of Flashback*** Sakura age 8 ***

Her birthday was today. Her mother had gotten her a beautiful red dress, which thankfully was still at home. Her mother always gave her presents in the morning so that she could have a smile on her face all day. Before she left school she had taken a section of the shiny gold ribbon that she had used to wrap the dress with and tied her hair back. She wanted to protest but her mom would have none of it.

She sobbed, her face scuffed from where she had been pushed into the ground. The pieces of her ribbon were in her hands, tears welled in the corner of her eyes. Ino and her dad had been gone today; they were supposed to be back later tonight, so Ami took advantage of it to torment the girl. She and her little cohort had been merciless today.

"I'm so pathetic," she said softly, burying her head into her knees. She had run from school, unable to take it anymore, and vanished into the forest. She knew she was somewhere near the Namikaze estate, but she didn't have any idea how to get home now. "I just want to go home."

"You know, you shouldn't cry like that," a voice said softly.

She looked up see a smiling girl sitting in the tree.

"I'm sorry," she whimpered.

"Now, now," the girl hopped down. She was her age, with brown hair and eyes. She walked over to her and helped her stand up. "I am Yakumo Kurama, nice to meet you."

She was distrustful these days of any girl her age. Ami and her friends made it so she was isolated from all but Ino.

"Don't worry," Yakumo offered with a smile. "You want to see something cool?"

Before she could respond she felt herself pulled by the girl. They made their way through the woods, towards the Namikaze estate. She tried to pull back.

"We'll get in trouble if we get to close to the Namikaze," she said. It was just a general rule for civilian families, you didn't approach clan areas. Some of them weren't friendly.

"Nah," Yakumo smiled. "They're a bunch of softies."

"I heard that," a voice called out.

Both girls spun around, two boys were in a clearing not to far ahead. As they came up towards the clearing a blonde haired kid was dodging a sweeping kick from a kid only to get blasted by a follow up punch. He let out a puff of wind and gasped as he dropped to his knees.

"Cheap shot," the blonde growled.

"Need to get them in where I can," the dark-haired kid said. She recognized him instantly. _The_ Sasuke Uchiha, the survivor of the clan massacre that happened not to long ago, the blonde was obviously the Namikaze. Naruto, she thought his name was.

"Who you got there?" Sasuke asked looking at the girls. He barely dodged a shot from Naruto as he surged from his crouch. "Hey, talk about cheap shots."

"Gotta take them where I can get them," Naruto smirked.

"That's enough you two," a new voice said. Sakura spun around to see a woman standing behind her. She had brilliant red hair and violet eyes. "You two are done for today."

"Namikaze-sama," she said with a bow.

"That was my husband," the woman said with a smile. "Look up, girl. Never let your head hang."

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

She looked at Yakumo, and then at the bruises on the girl's face. "Come here, sweetheart."

She stepped back as if Kushina had struck her. Kushina frowned at this. "I promise I won't hurt you."

"I'm sorry," she repeated.

"What happened?" Sasuke asked darkly. He knew the signs, he knew the girl was being bullied at the Academy, he had tried to step in before but teachers had prevented him from stopping it.

"Ami," she said softly.

Naruto looked at Sasuke, his expression obviously demanding an explanation. "A couple years ago, when we started the Academy, Ami Hitsugaya and several other girls formed a _'clique',_ I guess you could say, and their primary target has been Sakura. Ino Yamanaka is pretty much her only friend, and because of her clan status has kept most of the girls at bay. I remember her telling us she was going to go on a trip today with her father."

"So they decided to pick on a girl who didn't have anyone to back her up?" Naruto growled. Because he spent most of his time training with Kushina he didn't attend the academy as much as he should. None of the clan heirs did really, until the final year.

"We just can't let that stand," Sasuke agreed. He hated bullies, his brother had taught him to fight for those who couldn't and he would be damned if anyone got away with it when he could help.

"We need to fix more than that," Kushina said softly. She looked at the girl and summoned a green chakra to her hand. She ran it over the bruises and then looked down at the destroyed ribbon. "Someone important give that to you?"

"My mother." She looked on in awe.

"Well," Kushina stood and smiled. "What's your name, sweetheart?"

"Sakura, Sakura Haruno," she said softly.

"No, no, this won't do." Naruto shook his head and moved forward. "Say it louder, say it prouder."

"Huh?" she looked on like he was insane.

"You can't be ashamed of your name, ever," Kushina said with a smile. She turned to the woods and looked up to the sky. "I AM KUSHINA UZUMAKI-NAMIKAZE!"

She screamed it into the woods, with a smile on her face. Sakura stared at her as though she was nuts.

"She's right, you know," Sasuke stepped up next to her. "Your name is who you are, never be ashamed to say it proudly. You don't have to be meek about it, and you definitely don't have to be as obnoxious as the Uzumaki's are."

"Hey!" Naruto shouted. "We're not obnoxious."

"No, just you," Sasuke smirked. "I like your mom."

Naruto gave him a one-fingered benediction before turning back to Sakura. "Just don't be meek about it, Sakura. You're training to be a kunoichi of Kohona. You're doing it coming for a Civilian family, you don't have the tradition of a Ninja clan to back you up, and that gives you all the more reason to be proud."

Sakura stood dumbstruck. "How come a teenager is telling me this?"

"Sakura, you have a lot to learn about Uzumaki," Yakumo said with a smile. "We never do anything normally. Naruto is eight."

"But…but…he looks like he's thirteen!" Sakura shouted.

"That's the voice you need to use," Naruto said proudly. "Say your name just like that, I want to hear it."

"What?" Sakura looked confused again.

"Aww, you were doing so well too," Naruto poked her in the nose. "Come on Sakura, say it with me."

"I don't wanna," she stomped her foot defiantly.

Naruto smiled, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "I AM NARUTO UZUMAKI!"

"How come you don't use your dad's name too?" Sakura asked, surprised by his shout.

"Long story," Sasuke said stepping next to her. "You remember how to get here?"

She looked at each of them, wondering what they were going to do.

"We're going to work you to the bone," Naruto said with glee.

"Huh?" Sakura was so confused.

"You need help, Sakura," Sasuke said softly.

"We're going to give it to you," Naruto smiled. He was bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement. "You still have to go to the Academy every day, but I am sure we can work a way out so no one knows you're training with us."

"What makes…"

"Sakura, it's in your eyes," Yakumo said with a smile. "Sadness, pain, and hope. You want to prove them wrong, we'll show you how. "

"Why are you being so nice to me?" she all but cried.

"Because." Sasuke placed a hand on her shoulder as Naruto pulled back.

"No one deserves to feel alone," Naruto said with a smile. "You're going to have to keep this from Ino though. We don't want the other clan kids coming to train with us."

"We're secretive like that," Yakumo winked.

Kushina looked off to the side lost in thought. Three years ago…three years the Beast had shown. Would they be able to help him in the long run?

"Thank you," she breathed, tears forming again.

"Any time," Naruto stepped forward and gave her a hug. It always helped when Koyuki looked like she was going to cry.

"Dobe, what's Koyuki going to think?" Sasuke sniggered off to the side.

"Bite me!" Naruto snapped, letting her go and stepping back. "Come on Sakura, you can watch us spar and then we'll see where you're at."

"They're determined on this," Kushina said with a nod. "You're not going to be able to get out of it that easily. When we're done here we will see about fixing your dress, we can't let such a pretty dress go to waste after all."

Sakura was close to tears again, this was the nicest any of the Ninja families had ever been to her. She rushed forward and hugged the woman tightly, tears falling from her eyes. "Thank you…"

Kushina only placed a comforting hand on the girl's back and let her cry her tears.

* * *

Hiruzen laughed as he watched the cherry blossom move up next to Naruto and Sasuke. They looked like a team already. "Now that is amusing."

"How did they manage to hide it from us?" Danzo asked, stunned that his grandniece, though her father did not know that he was related to him, had been training with the Namikaze in secret for years. He thought he had kept better tabs on her than that.

"This is most interesting," Homura nodded. "A seal master, a ninjutsu specialist, and if the girls reports are right, a medic-nin to be. Seems familiar?"

"Eerily so," Koharu was laughing on the inside. It was rare for Front-Line teams to actually behave like ninja should. They had all bought into her act, it was amazing that a child had been able to pull it off in such a way.

Sarutobi coughed. "Yes, well, we will still have to wait and see how things shake out."

Danzo just watched, his Root were going to pay for not letting him know about this.

* * *

"What the hell is going on?" Ino screamed. "I thought you hated Naruto!"

"How could I hate the person who helped me become strong?" Sakura asked softly. There was fondness in her eyes that spoke of a bond stronger than just friendship, almost like family. Did Sakura really care for him that much? She met Ino's eyes. "Your friendship saved me, their's helped changed me."

Ino looked in her eyes for a moment and then nodded. "This is so a story you are going to tell the next time we talk!"

Sakura nodded and smiled. "It's better than letting people who wouldn't understand listen in."

Ino agreed, most of the clan kids were brats.

"Now if this is done, what makes you think that she can be your third team member, Naruto?" Iruka asked standing over them.

"The Hokage knows," Jiraiya said, stepping into the room. "At least now he does."

Anko looked on a bit stunned. She had known about the girl being a fangirl of the Uchiha. Was it all an act? She was a Torture Specialist, trained to draw out the slightest bit of truth in the movements of the people and she had never seen anything to indicate she wasn't an idiotic fangirl. Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"It's just highly unusual-" Iruka began. Unable to believe the sudden change in the girl, how had she been able to simply switch modes so easily?

"You're telling me," Jiraiya shrugged. "They have been a team for just about four years at this point. They work well together, and the Hokage knew they would announce their third team member. Just let it be."

"You were trained by Jiraiya-sama?" Ino rounded on her friend.

Sakura simply nodded. "Namikaze-sama as well helped to train me."

Jiraiya turned to Anko. "She is skilled at Chakra Control; we have started her on the same medic-nin track that Tsunade did, so work off that. But don't let the girl fool you, she is very good with genjutsu, and using it can fight Sasuke on even ground for a bit."

Kurenai looked impressed. That was a big accomplishment for a kunoichi-beginner. Usually they could not fight their male counter-parts on even terms for any amount of time.

"I call bullshit," the Inzuka heir said from the side. His dog on top of his head barking in agreement.

"Are you calling me a liar, boy?" Jiraiya asked with a hint of menace. He thought about letting loose some killing intent to see how much the punk could take, but Tsume would probably try and tear him a new one. He still had to have a talk with the clan leaders, their members were getting to cocky for their own good.

"No ,sir!" Kiba gulped. The menace in the air from the three was palpable, he gulped as the team looked ready to pounce to him."Sorry, sir."

"Next time, keep your opinions to yourself," Jiraiya growled. "I will ask for them if I want them."

Anko laughed slightly at the Clan brats. It was one of the things the education reforms had sought to stomp out, to bad it was taking so long. "Team Seven, you're with me. Let's get this party started."

"I like her," Naruto pointed at her.

"You would," Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Stop you two," Sakura said firmly. "We don't want to give the impression that we're insane."

"But we are," Naruto smiled. "Come on Sakura, Sasuke, let's go get some food. You can pick, Sakura."

"Namikaze Estate?" Sakura raised an eyebrow. She did not want to sit through another ramen mean if she could help it.

Naruto nodded, though he looked like someone had kicked his puppy. "Take all the fun out of my day, why don't you Sakura?"

She shrugged. "Koyuki told me to make sure you eat more than just ramen."

Naruto hung his head. "I just can't win. What's everyone got against ramen?"

"Nothing, except you eat too much of it," Jiraiya said laughing slightly. "Anko, you should go with them. Naruto knows how to let you into the house proper."

He disappeared in a swirl of leaves, and the three teens walked down to greet their sensei.

"You mean the rumour about him the Snow-Daimyo in exile was true?" Anko pointed at him.

Yakumo chirped up. "Yep, and she's very protective of him. So don't let any girls get any ideas."

"Not that he would anyways," Sasuke shook his head. "I haven't seen dogs as loyal as he is to her."

"Hey!" the Inzuka heir piped up.

"Shut up." Sasuke didn't even bother to look in his direction. They continued walking, Naruto and Sasuke hooking arms around their sensei taking her with them. She blinked in surprise as the two managed to drag her from the rooms.

"This isn't going to be good," Kurenai shook her head as the door closed. "You had to put her on the same team as them!"

"It seemed like a good idea the time," Asuma shrugged. "If you remember, none of us thought we could handle the three of them. Besides, you got to admit they are going to be fun to watch."

"True," Yugao and Asuma said at the same time.

"This isn't going to end well," Kurenai hung her head and looked for her team.

* * *

"Their defense is too great," the first shadow said as he stepped into the dimly lit cavern.

"The boy's power continues to grow," a second said.

"We must stop him!" a third shouted.

"We shall. Prepare them, he will know our wrath," a final shadow appeared. There was an air of agreement between all four as they faded from the world.

* * *

"You had to play them all like that?" Anko asked as they sat down to a simple meal of steamed vegetables and rice. "You couldn't give anyone a clue as to what is going on?"

"She's been training with us for four years," Naruto shrugged. It wasn't his fault people couldn't see behind an act, they were supposed to be ninja. "It was her place to tell, we would rather not have clan brats asking us for help."

"Yet you saw something in her," Anko pointed out. "And you do know that the two of you are technically, Clan Brats."

"It's all in the delivery," Naruto said randomly. "We train, we fight, we earn every shred of what we have, we don't hand it to anyone on a silver platter just because of status, we're just badass in general."

"She was alone," Yakumo said with a smile. Somehow she had gotten here before all of them, which meant the rest of the teams were done. Guess Sakura's little coming out party freaked them out. "We found her in a bad state, and that I thought it was something that we had to fix."

"Besides, she is the toughest girl in the Cohort, since Yakumo isn't technically part of the " Sasuke said with pride. "None of them can match her when she's truly fighting."

"How does she stack up against you?" Anko asked Naruto.

"We don't let her fight Naruto," Yakumo said quickly. Bad memories surfaced of the last time that she and Naruto had sparred together.

"Why?" Anko asked.

"I would rather not be flambéed, thank you very much," Sakura said. "I know Naruto would never hurt me, but I saw him and Sasuke spar many times, and Naruto's powers…"

"I thought you hated using your powers," Anko said looking back at Naruto.

"I use them as a last resort," he jerked his thumb to Sasuke. "If there is one thing that this bastard is good for, it's pushing me."

Anko knew there was more of a story here, but decided against pushing. The kids were pretty close knit; it was pretty much a guarantee that she wouldn't get it out of them if they pushed too hard.

"There is still one hold over tradition from the original schooling system," Anko began. "We're supposed to do an introduction session. Name, likes, dislikes, and dreams, the whole bit."

Yakumo laughed. "Come on guys, it's tradition."

"Sasuke Uchiha," Naruto said raising a hand like they were back in school. "Last of the Uchiha clan, and obsessive compulsive about killing that man," he stressed the part. "Finds training to be the most joy he can get out of life, and also has a thing for teriyaki. I think it's because he has a thing for my mom, the perv."

Naruto ducked a punch at this, while the others laughed. "Dream in life is to find that man, and make him beg for his balls to be sown back on after they have been thoroughly stuffed down said man's throat and he is turned into sashimi."

"Man, he has a mouth on him!" Anko exclaimed.

"This is the real Naruto," Sakura said with a smile. His honesty was one of the best qualities about him. "The prick you know in public is Naruto Uzumaki, here he is just Naruto. Here he knows how to joke, here he knows how not to walk around with a stick shoved up his butt. He doesn't have to be clan heir and he doesn't have the legacy of four thousand years of family history weighing him down."

"Four thousand years?" Anko blinked.

"The Uzumaki clan is from before the Great Burn, 4000 years ago," Yakumo offered. She took particular joy in studying the Uzumaki History. There was a lot of fun stuff in there, at least the parts that Kushina would let her read. To think humans used to live on the first moon, before it was destroyed. They were even on Mars according to one story.

Shaking her head, she decided not to go on that tangent. "Since Sasuke got introduced by Naruto, you should probably finish him, Sakura."

Sakura laughed, she stood up and struck the fabled and dead nice-guy pose of the Green Beast. "Naruto Uzumaki! Son of Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, all around pain in the ass to everyone. My likes include and are not limited to: ramen, training, and Koyuki, but don't let her hear it in that order. I dislike the three minutes I have to wait for my ramen to cook."

"She's got you down pretty good, dope," Sasuke laughed off to the side.

"Jackass," Naruto growled. "Continue Sakura."

"I also dislike overbearing tradition; it gets in the way of getting the job done. I dislike anyone who has a problem with the Princess Gale movies as well; they obviously don't know good work when they see it."

"Why does he like those movies?" Anko asked.

"Koyuki Kazahana," Yakumo said with a sage nod. "You know her though as Yukie Fujikaze."

"You mean he likes those horrible movies because he's dating the lead?" Anko asked, only to have Naruto appear in her face.

"_Never…diss…the…movies_!" he growled out. Anko had to wonder what his reaction would have been to her saying ramen sucked. It might be amusing to see one of these days.

She just about laughed; this was all too much fun. "So finish it up, girly."

"My dream is to be worthy of my clan names, to free Snow, and make lots of babies with my princess!"

"Did you feel weird saying that?" Yakumo asked, noting the quizzical look on her face.

"No," Sakura shook her head. "I just figure that I should have been saying it louder."

Everyone laughed, even though Naruto tried to give her a grumpy look.

"Sakura Haruno," Sasuke began. "Fan-girl extraordinaire."

As soon as he said that, he knew he should have ducked. Her bowl smashed into the side of his head. "Sorry!"

"You better be!" Sakura growled, showing him her fist menacingly. He would never admit it out loud, but the girl could be scary when she wanted to be.

"You are going to have to learn to avoid things like that," Anko pointed out dryly.

"I know, I know," Sasuke rubbed his head. "Sakura Haruno, daughter of Alia and Kenji Haruno, first generation ninja of the Haruno family. I like flowers, and ribbons, because they bring back good memories from my childhood. I also enjoy learning about genjutsu and medical techniques. My dream is to be as fine a medic nin as Lady Tsunade, though you may want to get a new dream, I heard some weird weapons chick wants to do that too."

Anko remembered the girl; she was one of the few people who had enough nerve to be around Gai's team during their training sessions. It was always fun to watch the Gennin reactions to him and his clone.

"I also want to build a name for myself, so that any family I have will have chances I didn't have."

"Sounds pretty balanced to me," Anko said with a smile. "Well since you were all so kind to tell me about yourselves, I guess I can do the same."

"Anko Mitarashi," Naruto began.

"Former apprentice of the traitor, Orochimaru of the Sannin." Sasuke continued. "We did our homework on all the Jounin."

"But I wasn't a jounin," Anko blinked. This felt really wrong for some reason.

"We like to know what's going on," Naruto continued. "We know you have a thing for dango, and if you diss on my Ramen I am going to show you all that my powers can do."

"And we know he would need them to fight you," Sakura said. "You're one of the most feared fighters in the Elemental Nations, with a B-rank bounty on your head."

"Only B?" Anko nearly screamed, forgetting the unease at the kids knowing so much about her.

"It dropped from A, because they think that Kohona has taken you off of active duty roster," Sasuke shrugged. When everyone looked at him he blinked back. "What? It's not like you guys don't read the Bingo books we get in too."

"How do you get those?" Anko asked. "They are supposed to be restricted to Jounin division and above."

Sasuke jerked a finger at Naruto. "His girlfriend still has a small army of Ninja that protect her. She sends us copies of the books whenever they update their own."

Anko wondered why she felt so out of her element. She wasn't ready for a ready-made team that she could probably take on C-rank mission right off the bat. "How does she get them?"

"We don't ask," Naruto shrugs. "I know her forces have their own sources, we're just grateful for the intelligence feed."

Yakumo scowled slightly, it didn't go unnoticed by Anko.

"Don't like her much," Anko asked, looking at the girl.

"Oh, no!" Yakumo quickly lost the scowl and shook her head. "I like Koyuki just fine; the problem is some of those under her command are real pigs."

"You've met them?" Anko raised an eyebrow.

"Where do you think Koyuki stays when she is in town?" the girl laughed. The Snow Embassy here was technically hers, but the building rarely ever saw her staying there. In fact, she had more than half the closet of Naruto's room occupied with various clothes that she had collected since her arrival.

"Form the look, I am guessing, with big boy here," Anko laughed as Naruto scowled.

"Anyways, we know your dream is to kill Orochimaru," Naruto continued. "We'll gladly help you make him burn when the time comes."

"It's going to be a long time, until you brats are ready for that," Anko said seriously.

"Then we better get started," Sakura smiled.

"Technically, I am supposed to give you a test to prove your ability for teamwork," all three scowled and Anko laughed. "Though after the introduction, the fact that you three know each other so well is proof enough for me. Besides, tests are a weak excuse to beat the hell out of you three. I need no such excuse."

All three shivered slightly. "Tomorrow, seven am, training ground 44. Be late and I feed you to a snake."

She stood to leave, Naruto immediately grabbed her arms. "You have to use shunshin outside of the house."

"Why?" Anko was surprised again.

"Some seal my mom put up, it acts as a chakra nullifier. It's laced in the walls of the building. You try it and you get imbedded in the walls, not a pleasant way to die."

Anko blinked. Once, twice, and then nodded. "I really need a drink."


	8. Chapter 8

AN: This has not been beta read, considering the length between posting my beta has disappeared. If anyone is willing to beta this for me, please message. I could use the help.

Chapter 7 – The Beast of Darkness

…He was panting heavily, blood pouring from wounds that made his body look like it had been skinned. She cried out to him, but he could not hear her. He smirked slightly, there was sadness in those eyes. He charged, leaving her to watch as he battled with the monster before them.

The monster was huge, far larger than a normal man. He dodged a strike from what appeared to be an elm tree. His blade, a simple inelegant katana cut through it like it had cut through butter. The man leapt into the air, spinning as he did, arch after arch of golden energy flew from him, tearing into the monster.

"Please, stop," she cried out. "Please, come back to me, forget this fight."

"He can't," a soft voice said next to her. She spun, there standing there was an old woman dressed in white. "He can't forget it, because it's his destiny, it always has been."

"He shouldn't fight this alone," she breathed, listening to the thunder of the strikes between them. The trees around them were uprooted as the force of the attacks ripped them apart.

"This is his legacy, this is his moment, the one that will define a hundred generations to come," the woman smiled. "Don't worry, because what has happened, will happen again."

She looked at the old woman. "What are you?"

"The future is written, a battle once fought will begin anew, a chosen son will be all that stands between the world, and the Beast."

She wanted to say something, when an explosion ripped through the air. She spun, watching as a brilliant white light spread out from where the Beast's head had been. He was falling back, his sword ahead of him. She cried out, watching as the sword stabbed into the ground, and he stabbed through the blade. He had a smile on his face as blood poured from his mouth. She collapsed, tears flowing from her eyes.

"Why," she breathed. She cried, as the darkness receded and a brilliant white light shined above. "Why?"

"Because," he whispered. "I love you…"

The world faded to white…

* * *

Koyuki awoke with a start. Tears staining her cheeks, she sat up, throwing off her covers as she did. She brought her knees to her chest and let more tears fall. Why was she dreaming of this? What was she seeing?

"Another one," a soft voice asked from her side.

She turned, flinching almost at the sight of one of her protectors, Shizune, the apprentice of the Slug Sannin Tsunade. She forced herself to calm, it wasn't Shizune's fault that she had these dreams. "I am sorry if I woke you."

"I should be so lucky," Shizune snorted, an inelegant, almost accusatory snort. "Lady Tsunade is out like a light right now."

Koyuki shook her head. It was that time of year again, her former lover had died this week and Tsundae drank herself into oblivion every night, only to be ready to move the next morning. She had learned from Kushina before leaving that Tsundae grew very detached during this time, she would do her duty, but the weight of the shadows of her past also seemed heavier now than during the rest of the year.

"It's what Lady Kushina told us would happen," she lay back down, extended out. She was so tired of these dreams, she wished that Tsunade had a way to make them go away. Ninja had to have such a technique to deal with their own memories right?

"You wish that your Prince was here," Shizune shook her head. "You've been extra mopey for the last few weeks."

Koyuki turned her head slightly, affronted. "I have not been, nor will I ever be mopey."

"The sighing is a dead giveaway," Shizune snickered. "So what's up? What was it this time?"

"His death," Koyuki shuddered, tears forming at the corner of her eyes. "I watched his death, I watched him fight a god and all I could do was stare, nothing I could do would change the fight!"

Shizune frowned, it was like the other dreams. The warrior unknown, always bathed in the darkness, battling what she presumed to be the Beast. Before the journey they had been given a full run down of what was going on with Naruto. It had been shocking to say the least that the Uzumaki family had asked for so much protection for one woman, but when they finally had a clear picture of what was going on it didn't seem like enough.

"Was it Naruto?"

Koyuki shook her head. "No, it wasn't him, that much I can tell you. All I know is that it was near Kohona, I could see some of the grounds in the distance. It was absolute darkness outside, even the light from their attacks could barely penetrate it."

That must have been a wicked dream, Shizune shook her head. "You should try and relax Princess, a few more stops and we will be back home for your Prince."

"Don't you start too," Koyuki groaned.

"You have to admit, what you two have is written write out of romance novels," Shizune said wistfully. "The stronger than his years prince, saving the tired old princess."

A tick developed above Koyuki's left eye. It was weird, when Naruto was annoyed a tick mark appeared over his right eye.

"Who you calling old, grandma," Koyuki snapped. "If case you have forgotten, I am almost a decade younger than you."

"And still nearly a decade older than your intended," Shizune laughed.

"It's not like I knew he was eight when we started hanging out," Koyuki screamed. "I mean seriously, he is almost a replica of his father, would you believe that he was only eight years old!"

Shizune shook her head. "I am sorry, Koyuki, but it's just so fun to tease you and Naruto. I know the first time I saw him I wished I was a few years younger, then I just didn't realize how young he was."

It was the scary part of Naruto's situation was how fast it forced him to grow. All estimates placed his body in his later teens to early twenties, they could not be sure, but he was only twelve. Would the accelerated aging of his body continue? Would he have a normal life? Or would he flicker out like a candle in the wind? It scared Koyuki to no end. They both had so much to do, so much to live for, what if that life together was cut short?

"You shouldn't worry about those things, remember his promise to you," Shizune whispered. She had seen the look before nad learned how to read it in their travels. "I don't think death would stop that from happening."

Koyuki smiled slightly. "He will keep his promise."

Shizune looked out the window, making sure none of her uncle's assassins were near. "We should reach Wave by tomorrow, and then it will only be a few days to Kohona."

Koyuki smiled, a chance to be together again. The princess in her never believed something so simple as the presence of another would bring her so much joy. The woman she had become, understood perfectly.

* * *

"The teams are set, Anko told me of their interesting introductions," Hiruzen handed Jiraya and Danzo a folder. "I didn't know they knew each other that completely."

Jiraya nodded. "They have been around each other, almost nonstop for four years. They know each other, because hell, you have talked with Kushina, they are not very deceptive when it comes to who they are. What you see, is what you get."

"It's still impressive," Danzo admitted. "My grandniece is much happier with them then when she was younger. When her father announced she was entering the program I would never have believed that she would be able to keep up like this."

"So your nephew does know who you are," Hiruzen looked at him strangely. "I thought you were against those connections."

"Connections to family are different, Hiruzen, you know that," he shook his head. "I still fear that the information might come out one day, and all of the Root will not be able to protect them, but how can I deny family? It would be the same as denying the village."

Hiruzen sympathized, he felt the same way. While he had the option of being more overt in his connections with his family, when he stepped up to being Hokage his eldest had been murdered as a message from one of the warring factions. He sighed heavily.

"The fact that we have a non-clan civilian female who can keep up with two of the most prominent clan members has already attracted the attention of several lucrative contracts, and we have been asked to train several of the courtesan guards of the Daimyo," Hiruzen continued. "We have set up training programs now, but we are going to have to intensify their training if what you're telling me is true."

Jiraya nodded. "Their training was seven hours a day between the academy and their actual training time at the Namikaze estates. Kushina's training methods are harsh, so no more flower arranging, we need to up the training anyways."

Danzo nodded. "I told them that flower arranging was useless, they didn't expect the need to our kunochi to be battle ready."

"Well it changes now," Hiruzen said. "I want you to assign two of your root to oversee the selection process, the Kunochi that we have now will be brought up to battle standards, no matter what, be they clan or not."

Danzo nodded, standing and fading from view. His sunshin technique was the strangest of all the leaf, while most of them involved a cloud of dust to conceal or a swirl of leaves, his simply made Danzo fade from view. It was most intriguing.

"I understand there is something you wanted to ask me," Jiraya said after Danzo had left.

Hiruzen motioned for both of the Anbu to leave and the silencing seals to activate. It created a white noise field to everyone out of it, so all that could be heard would be static. There was no known way to breach the seal, which was nice.

"I have heard something troubling coming out of Iwa," Hiruzen moved over to desk and opened the writing drawer. He pulled out a folder and handed it to him. "This is what Root agents have managed to find, it links back to Kushina specifically. They are trying to unleash the Beast's partner."

"You know her story then," Jiraya tried to hide his surprise.

"Minato told me," Hiruzen said off handed. "I don't know if the Namikaze had a prophetic eye, but he wanted me to know if anything should happen to him."

Jiraya nodded, Minato prepared for everything, it was in his nature. He probably didn't see the Kyuubi's rampage, but he probably did see such a disaster nearly destroying the leaf and taking him with it. "Why didn't you say anything to her?"

"The poor girl is afraid of herself," Hiruzen shook his head. "I see it in her eyes, she tries to hide it, but she is absolutely terrified of what people would think. You remember how hard it was when word spread that the Kyuubi had been sealed into her son."

Jiraya nodded, if people knew the truth there would be rioting. "So that's why they want the information from the Uzumaki vault, they want to know where the Beast's partner is."

Hiruzen nodded. "It is the final act of spite of that bastard Kage, because he had no way to face us directly. It's why they attacked Whirlpool as well."

"This is just too much, we have Madara on one side, and now this son of a bitch on the other. You know the Beast had no partner right? It was the Juubi, and the Sage took care of that by splitting him into the tailed beasts."

"I do, they don't," Hiruzen shook his head. "There has been a step up in attacks from the Iwa Alliance, our border patrols have lost twenty members so far."

"This isn't good, the Fourth Ninja War will happen if this keeps up."

"Orochimaru, now Iwa, and Madara," Hiruzen shook his head. Popular belief among all three was that they were clueless about what was going on. They would have no idea when they slit their throats with their blades. "I want you to step up efforts in the Grass."

"Why," Jiraya raised his eyes slightly.

"We're going on the offensive, I have already discussed this with the Anbu-Commander. Orochimaru will be isolated out, and we will remove his power base."

Jiraya's eyes widened, he was talking about war.

"Sometimes the only way to save everyone, is to simply pick a fight. We're going to make it look like his little village assassinated an Iwa diplomat who was headed to cloud, we are already set."

Jiraya nodded. "Will we enter the fight?"

Hiruzen nodded. "When they push it to us, we will deal with them."

The way he said deal with them left no doubt as to what he meant. "You're inviting them to the Exams, aren't you?"

Hiruzen nodded. "You always were the best at reading me."

Jiraya shook his head. "You know Naruto plans to take his name, we have sheltered him as much as possible, and still they get through. You make such a grand announcement, the rest of the nations might start gunning for us."

"It can't be avoided right now, but what will help is that we come out swinging," Hiruzen smiled. "I even have the help of the Daimyo, he has arranged his armies."

"This could be a slaughter, Waterfall is sending Fu this year," Jiraya mentioned. "She is like Naruto, and nearly as strong as the Eight Tail. She even likes the brat."

"When was he to Waterfall" Hiruzen raised an eyebrow. He had not heard about that trip.

"He is more traveled than anyone believes," Jiraya shrugged. "His mom, rather than keep him under lock and key, has allowed him essentially free reign."

"That's dangerous," Hiruzen said, looking at the picture of the Fourth. "Do you think he would consent to an ANBU following him?"

"Neko probably, not any of the others," Jiraya whispered. "For some reason he has a soft spot for her."

"Probably because of what is happening with Hayate," Hiruzen knew of the connection between the two, but he had no idea where it came from. "I will speak with her later today, I want Naruto watched carefully now. His powers are growing and with him being the face of this graduating cohort."

Jiraya nodded. "Is there anything else? I do have an assassination to stage."

"Come back safe, Jiraya," Hiruzen said with a simple, honest emotion in his voice.

Jiraya nodded and vanished in a plume of smoke.

Hiruzen folded his hands atop his desk and stared at the picture of his predecessor. "The Stage is set old Friend, I know you did this to change the world, and I will do everything in my power to make sure the outcome is as happy as possible."

* * *

Tsundae didn't like the looks of Wave. When she had been there a year ago it had been a thriving fishing community, now it was desolate. Children ran around in scraps and once busy shops were empty and boarded up.

"Stop!" a female screamed.

She turned to see a dark haired woman on the ground. Two men, one with an eye patch stood above her, leering at her prone form.

"You should have left with your old man, little girl," the bigger of the two sneered. "Now, we're going to leave him a message for opposing Gato."

He reached towards her when a Kunai embedded in his hands. He cringed, turning to see the furious blonde walking towards them.

"I think you two should leave, before I show you what I am capable of," Tsundae growled out.

"Who the fuck do you think you are," the slimmer of the two screeched. "Do you know who owns this island?"

"The people," Tsunade said darkly. "This is theirs and they will take it back, your boss won't be able to keep them down forever."

"Then we will kill them off," the larger growled out. "I will enjoy breaking you for doing this to me."

Tsundae only smirked. Both men wildly charged her. The young woman on the ground looked absolutely terrified.

The surrounded her, they charged in, and stabbed her with their blades. She stood there, a smirk on her face.

She cocked her head to one side and smiled at the slimmer of the two.

"Die," she roared, appearing next to him and slamming a fist into his head. He flew through the air, landing against a wall. His eyes were white, had she really crushed his head in with such a strike? "You two are pathetic, she turned to the larger. You have no idea who you are facing do you?"

"What does it matter," the larger man roared.

"It matters, because you are about to see what means," Tsunade smirked at that. "You're about to see what it means to face on of the Sannin!"

The man paled dramatically, as the woman grabbed him by the head. She smiled slightly. "I think I should send an effective message to your master."

"Damn you," the smaller man rushed towards her, drawing his sword. Tsunade smiled, she was glad that she hadn't killed him. If the perverted nature of her teammate could inspire her strength, an attempted rape would leave them both dead.

"You have no idea who I am," Tsunade growled, swinging the smaller man around. The sword stabbed through his chest, his friend looked horrified as the woman threw the smaller man away. "You think that you could get away with this? You think justice wouldn't find you? You think that a blade gives you power? Let me show you what power is."

Tsunade was annoyed now, and if Jiraya were there he would tell you what an annoyed Tsunade meant. She grabbed the larger man by the throat and lifted him off the ground. He struggled to breath, dangling as the smaller woman held him over her head.

"You who prey on those who cannot fight back have no real power of their own. This is my message for your boss, this land is going to change."

She snapped his neck and threw him off to the side. Tsunade looked to the woman who had wide, terrified eyes.

"What did you do!" she screamed. "There will be more of them."

"I save you from being raped, and now I am going to save this village," Tsunade looked at her annoyed, as Shizune and Koyuki ran up to her.

"Lady Tsunade," Shizue looked at the dead bodies. "What's going on?"

"It looks like the brat is rubbing off on me," she spit on the body of the downed men. "Evidently this land is under a dictator."

She looked to the old woman. "What's his name?"

"Gato," the woman trembled, to scared to run. This was the first time, since her husband…she trembled unable to believe that anyone would want to save her.

"Gato industries," the dark haired woman spat. "He helped to supply my uncle the weapons that they used in my father's overthrow."

"Who are you," the woman asked in disbelief.

"Koyuki Kazahana," the woman offered her a smile. "And yourself?"

"Tsunami," she breathed. "My name is Tsunami. I am sorry, I have just never…"

"I was here less than a year ago," Tsunade said. "How did it get this bad this fast?"

"A lot of manpower, and a lot of money," Tsunami looked down. "They killed my husband and…"

"Hey, you," someone screamed. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

Tsuande turned to a group of men. "Took you fools long enough."

"Lady Tsuande," Shizune warned off to the side. "We can't fight with the princess here."

Tsuande nodded.

"Stand where you are, and we might leave you some mercy after we are through with you," a leader of twenty men roared.

Tsunade turned. "Do you really think I scare that easy?"

Shizune began the hand seals. Her eyes narrowed, she would make sure to include this in the message that they sent to Naruto. She wondered what the response of Kohona had would be for threatening one of their assassins.

"Biransei No Jutsu," Shizune breathed, a thick cloud of purple rolling forward towards the group of men.

Tsunade looked at the cloud, listening to the screams of some of the fools dumb enough to be caught in it. "I am impressed Shizune, very nice work."

Shizune let the last of the gas fade from her lungs before smiling sheepishly. "We should probably go, my lady."

"Agreed," Tsunade walked over to Tsunami. "Let's go back to your house, and we will decide what we should do."

Tsunami was amazed, what the two women had done was unbelievable. "Who are you?"

"I am Senju Tsunade, Slug Sannin of the Kohona," she smiled. "And right now, I am about to kick ass and take a lot of names."

Koyuki leaned into Shizune as the two disappeared. "You know that she spends a lot of time around Naruto."

Shizune could only nod. She took hold of Koyuki's shoulder and both of them disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

* * *

"Raven, in position," a voice called over the mic.

"Blossom, in position," Sakura said into her head set. "Does anyone have the little blighter in sight?"

"Only if you promise me you will use the Flammbe Genjutsu you developed," Naruto's crackled over the speaker. "This is what, the fourth time this week we have had to catch the little blighter?"

"Quite Sunshine," Anko's voice snapped. "There will be no torture of the target."

"You couldn't give me a good name," Naruto whined. "You just had to call me Sunshine, huh Snakey-chan."

"You know I am going to work you into the ground for that," Anko growled. "Do you or don't you see the damn thing?"

"Northwest corner, twenty meters from Raven," Naruto huffed. "Clones are in position to assist if you need it, Raven."

"Understood," Sasuke said. "Moving now."

A moment later loud hissing was heard over the radio. "I have it."

"Let's report back," Anko groaned. She honestly hated that stupid cat. "Maybe they will have a decent mission."

"Understood," all three voices called out.

Anko shook her head. Her team was interesting to say the least, the team exercise had been a very enlightening experience for her. They were very good, they were trained well, and with the right push they would be better than her former master could ever hope to be.

The Administrative center was located on the lower floors of the Hokage tower, it was always busy. There was so much paperwork generated by the Ninja forces that they had to employ three full time staffers from the ninja forces. Ninja who made it to retirement were slotted into these positions, to keep the secretive nature of the missions from being leaked to the general populace. It was considered that these staffer positions were the quick line to being considered for the Jounin High Council, since two of the three members were retired service.

"Anko-chan," the third said with a smile. "I see you managed to retrieve the little terror."

Sasuke held the beast out at arms-length. The vicious little blighter trying to grab him every step of the way with its claws, had a look of horror on its face as the client appeared.

"I believe this is yours ma'am," Sasuke said, handing her the cat.

"Thank you," she cried for joy, squeeze the beast to her chest. "Thank you so much for bringing back my darling Tora."

"Any time ma'am," Sasuke said stepping back into formation with his team.

"They are such a nice group," the woman said looking at the Hokage. "Please include standard bonus for return of my darling Tora unharmed."

"Yes ma'am," he said with a smile. The woman happily left with the struggling cat. "Damn woman."

Naruto chuckled slightly. "I see you feel the same way."

The Hokage shook her head. "Her mother had a set of terrors of her own, as did her grandmother. We have been dealing with that line of cats for as long as Kohona has been around."

"That's just wonderful," Sasuke made a face. "The damn cat needs to die."

"We would if we could," the Hokage agreed. "But, she is the wife of the Daimyo, well one of them. How he can deal with all seven I will never understand."

Naruto made a face as a picture formed in his mind. "To each their own."

"I have an interesting little conundrum boys," the Hokage handed Naruto a message. "We received this, this morning."

Naruto opened it and immediately stopped. "They…"

The Hokage nodded. "I think you understand now."

"Lady Tsuande wants to free a country," Naruto's eyes went blank. "What is she doing there with Koyuki?"

The Hokage shook his head. "She didn't know when they entered the town that the business magnet Gato had taken over in the last few months. The people are terrified right now, but there is nothing more than rouge gennin under his command, maybe two hundred total. The most are cannon fodder samurai."

"Lady Tsunade should be able to handle it," Anko mentioned from the side. "With her summons she could wipe out his entire compound without really breaking a sweat. Why would she send a request back?"

"She wants to make a show of it. Wave is close to Kohona's borders. The last time we didn't respond to a threat against a nearby village, Iwa managed to wipe out the Whirlpool. She wants a show made of it, and she wants us to use our front-line teams from this year. She thinks using our youngest teams in such a display will show them the true meaning of our power."

Naruto stilled at that. His mom had told him some of what happened to her former home, but she still refused to talk about the days leading up to her leaving the village.

"And we have a mission request for a C rank escort back to this village," the Hokage said.

Anko's eyes narrowed at that. "If we are going into a hostile area, it's a mandatory B rank mission."

"We don't know about that," the Hokage said with a nod. "He has given us no information regarding the climate, we are to believe wave is still in the same condition as Tsuande found it in a year ago."

"He's trying to rip us off?"

"No," the Hoakge shook his head. "He is terrified we won't take the mission."

Anko nodded. Desperation, she understood it. She had seen it enough from her own duties in the Torture and Interrogation Unit.

"So now we are left with a question, what do we do?"

"Do we make a show of this?" Anko asked. "We have three front-line teams that are ready to go. We also have at least two ANBU units that we can shit to this endeavor."

The Hokage nodded. "We don't want them to get the idea that we have caught on. I have already shifted two ANBU units into the area. They have been ordered to make contact with Tsunade, and we have also have three Root agents in the area that have begun to gather supplies. We will be sending all three front-line teams from this cohort."

Naruto nodded, grateful that he would be able to see Koyuki, even if it would be in the middle of a war zone.

"So should I call for him," the Hokage asked, raising an eyebrow. Anko nodded after looking at her team. They were ready for this.

The Hokage motioned to the guard at the door. He knocked on it, and an old man who stunk of booze entered into the room.

"This is what I am paying for," he slurred. "They look more like super brats than super ninja."

None of them said anything. The Hokage smiled gratefully, since there were three had sharp tongue when they wanted too.

"There will be two other teams that join you in route," the Hokage mentioned. "They will be the first stage from the village. Eventually there will be three full teams there to help you."

"That sounds more like it," the old man said with a smirk, he lifted the hip flask to his lips. "What you looking at, brat?"

"A fool," Naruto said darkly. "Or just a coward."

Naruto turned and walked away with the rest of his team following. Anko blinked, wondering what that was about.

"How dare, that brat," the old man rumbled, the Hokage's eyes narrowed.

"It would be good to be careful with them," the Hokage reminded him. "They may be your assigned team, but they are not slaves, they still have emotions and will not take well to abuse."

The old man grumbled something. "When do we leave?"

"After you showered and sobered up," Anko announced.

"Is there any way that we can leave tonight?"

Anko's eyes narrowed, he was definitely worried about something. "I am not sure."

"Please try, I need to get back there," the old man said quietly. "Please try."

"We will do our best to accomadate," the Hokage said. "Please make use of the facilities, a guard will show you the way."

He nodded, as one of the guards at the door came over and guided him gently to the exit. Once he was gone the Hokage turned to her. "He is hiding something, what we just saw was more than enough conformation. This is being entered as B rank for all teams involved, keep them on high alert. If he can hire as many rouges as he has, that means he can hire higher caliber ninja as well."

Anko nodded. "Do you know what the message to Naruto said?"

He shook his head. "I tend to let things stay private unless I think they are a threat to the village. I can tell you though that if what Tsunade reported was correct, keep him on a tight leash. I don't want him flying off the handle."

Anko nodded, and vanished in a swirl of leaves to find her team. She had arrangements to make.

The Hokage stared at the ceiling. "And the land of waves will be washed over by the darkness…you really did have a prophetic eye, didn't you old friend?"

* * *

Naruto stared at his blade, he wanted to draw it, he wanted to let them know pain, but there was no enemy before him now. There were only flashes, glimpses offered to him by the Beast.

"You know Tsunade will let nothing happen to her right," the Kyuubi approached him. "It's best not to dwell on the dark thoughts, it will give the beast easier access to your psyche."

"I can't help it," Naruto didn't even look up from his blade. "I don't want anything to happen to her."

"You worry to much," the Kyuubi told him. "It's not healthy for a twelve year old to take the world on his back."

"What am I supposed to do," Naruto did turn to look at him this time. "The time of the Beast is coming, we can both feel it. He's gathering power behind the seal, and the remnants are coming to him. Mom said she felt his pull leave not to long ago."

"Then you get stronger. You will win," the fox said, before fading. "Remember that, after all you are the hero of this story."

Naruto nodded, before putting his sword at his side. "Hang on princess, I am coming."

* * *

Next Chapter: Long awaited Fluff, and the First General of the Beast.


End file.
